1985 MiG-21 crash in Cottbus
Air Forces of the NVA Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
From Cottbus-Drewitz Airfield to Cottbus-Drewitz Airfield
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
- Unknown
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 1
- 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
- 3
- 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
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
- Aircraft type
- Mikoyan Gurevich MIG-21
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- 590
- Operator
- Air Forces of the NVA
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Cottbus-Drewitz AirfieldTo Cottbus-Drewitz Airfield
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1985 MiG-21 crash in Cottbus was an air accident that occurred in Cottbus on 16 March 1985. A MiG-21 M of the Air Forces of the NVA crashed into a student hall of residence of the Cottbus College of Engineering. It was already the second accident of this kind in Cottbus, after a MiG-21 had also crashed into a residential building 10 years earlier (1975 MiG-21 crash in Cottbus).
Course of events
The pilot was the then 25-year-old First Lieutenant Uwe Behrndt, a member of Fighter Wing 7 stationed at Drewitz. As part of a military exercise, he took off in his MiG-21 with the identification 590 from Drewitz Airfield on 16 March at 8:43. For the takeoff he used a rarely employed procedure in which the aircraft is additionally accelerated by auxiliary rockets. The aircraft was armed with two Grushin RS-2US air-to-air missiles.
During takeoff, strong vibrations caused a defect in the hydraulic system, so that the thrust nozzle control no longer worked. The aircraft was thus unmanoeuvrable. Owing to several omissions, the pilot noticed the defect only after takeoff. He then immediately informed his superior controller, Colonel Frank Pampel, who at 8:45 gave the order to eject with the ejection seat.
The pilot landed by parachute with minor injuries near the Cottbus district of Sielow. He was almost accidentally shot by hunters who were conducting a driven hunt there. He received medical treatment in the military hospital of Cottbus-Nord Airfield. The ejection seat crashed in the immediate vicinity into a garage complex, destroying the Wartburg 311 of the then district head of State Security.
The now uncontrolled aircraft raced on towards the city centre and crashed into the northern gable of Hall of Residence III (today Universitätsstraße 16). The entire northern part of the building up to and including the first stairwell collapsed. There were no fatalities, because most of the students were not in the hall of residence at the time of the disaster but at an FDJ leisure event in the Cottbus Stadthalle. Only one student was seriously injured and one female passer-by slightly injured.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Absturz einer MiG-21 in Cottbus 1985” (revision 258113305, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Absturz einer MiG-21 in Cottbus 1985
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 258113305 · 2025-07-21 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q133801263
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Absturz einer MiG-21 in Cottbus 1985" (page 13444806, revision 258113305), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities plus ground fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.