Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253A

Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253A was a military charter flight carrying 214 American troops bound for South Vietnam. On July 1, 1968, the plane was intercepted by Soviet jets after it unintentionally violated Soviet airspace. It was forced to land on one of the Soviet-controlled Kuril Islands with all 238 Americans aboard being detained for two days.

Background

On the afternoon of July 1, 1968, a Seaboard World Airlines Douglas DC-8 Super 63CF departed McChord Air Force Base, near Seattle, Washington bound for Yokota Air Base in Japan. The plane was piloted by Joseph D. Tosolini, with copilot Henry Treger, flight engineer Earl Scott, and navigator Lawrence Guernon. Because the plane was on its maiden flight, the crew also included a check pilot and a check engineer. It was carrying 214 American troops and 24 crew members who were en route to South Vietnam via Japan.

The aircraft strayed westward of its planned track as it came into range of Japan, passing along the Soviet-controlled Kuril Islands. Japanese radar controllers notified the crew of the error when it was about 80 nmi off course. Accounts differ as to whether the message was unintelligible to Flight 253A due to static or whether the message was received but the crew did not have time to react. Two Soviet MIG fighter aircraft, piloted by Yu. B. Alexandrov, V.A. Igonin, I.F. Evtoshenko and I.K. Moroz, intercepted the DC-8 at 2320 UTC (8:20 am), and directed it to follow by firing warning shots. The DC-8 was led to Burevestnik airfield on the Soviet-controlled Iturup Island, landing at 2339 UTC (8:39 am), on the 2400 m concrete runway. No damage to the plane was reported by the captain as he shut down the engines at 8:42 am.

Burevestnik was a Soviet interceptor airfield served only by a military post and a small village. Initially all the Americans were confined to the aircraft and allowed outside to a radius of about 100 m of the plane. Food in the galley ran out the next day, and the Soviets delivered military rations of brown bread, canned cheese, butter, weak coffee, beef bouillon, noodles, and cigarettes. The female cabin flight crew were allowed to sleep in a maintenance building on the second night.