FIGHTER CRASH IN AUSTRIA

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27875, 25 January 1956, Page 13

FIGHTER CRASH IN AUSTRIA

Jet Plane Shot And Then Rammed

VIENNA, January 23.

One of two Hungarian jet fighters which crashed over Austria on Saturday was riddled with bullets and finally rammed in a vain attempt to prevent it reaching Austrian territory, aviation experts said in Vienna today. These experts said that an examination of the wreck of both MIG 15 fighters’ left* little doubt that one of the aeroplanes was attacked by the other. The pilot of the aeroplane under fire was killed in a collision between the aeroplanes while flying near Pamhagen, on the Austrian side of the Austro-Hungarian border. Flight Captain Nikolai Konoklov, the Russian pilot of the second aeroplane, parachuted to safety. He was handed over to the Soviet Embassy in Vienna last night. Captain Konoklov’s version of the crash is that he and his comrade were chasing two aeroplanes of unknown nationality which appeared over Hungarian territory. While trying to head off the intruders, he collided with the other MIG-15, he told officials. Four Aircraft Seen Eyewitnesses in the Pamhagen area agree* that there were four jets overhead at the time and that some firing was going on. The eyewitnesses said that two of the aircraft collided and crashed, another returned to Hungary and the fourth flew westward. The most popular theory is that two jets flown by Russians took off in an attempt to prevent two other Hungarian, or possibly Russian, pilots from escaping to the West.