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1953 Avro Lincoln shootdown incident

12 Mar 1953 · Hamburg-Berlin air corridor over East Germany

Avro Lincoln and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 · Shootdown

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
Unknown
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
Unknown
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
Unknown
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Military

Aircraft 1 · Avro Lincoln

Aircraft type
Avro LINCOLN
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
Unknown
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded

Aircraft 2 · Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15

RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
Unknown
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

On 12 March 1953, an Avro Lincoln, which had intruded into East German airspace while flying on the Hamburg-Berlin air corridor over East Germany during a training mission, was shot down by a Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighter aircraft. The incident drew intense criticism because the surviving crew members were fired at and killed by the Soviet aircraft, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Text from the Wikipedia article “1953 Avro Lincoln shootdown incident” (revision 1368281232, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article

Sources

Wikipedia article: 1953 Avro Lincoln shootdown incident
Article
1953 Avro Lincoln shootdown incident
Revision
1368281232 · 2026-08-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q28155650
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "1953 Avro Lincoln shootdown incident" (page 52728854, revision 1368281232)
Date
Wikipedia article text, read with AI assistance: date
Place and country
Wikipedia article text, read with AI assistance: site
Map position
Wikipedia article coordinates
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia article text, read with AI assistance: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
operator is an armed force according to Wikidata
Fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.