<p>That incident occurred on 1 July 1960; a similar incident happened again on 10 March 1964, to the crew of a Douglas RB-66A. The light twin-jet reconnaissance bomber was available in at least two versions, one for photographic and the other for electronic reconnaissance.
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<p>It was operating out of a French base on a training flight and was heading toward the East German border. Its flight path was monitored by ground radar controllers, and they saw it make a feint toward the east. It continued to fly eastward long after it should have turned back. The controllers transmitted a return code, but received no acknowledgment. Then they transmitted in the clear, adding a warning that the border was about to be crossed. That also was not acknowledged.
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<p>The plane was about 16 miles (25 km) inside East Germany when it was intercepted by a fighter, probably an East German MiG-17. It hit the RB-66A on the first firing pass, and Captain David Holland ordered the bail-out. Holland, Captain Melvin J. Kessler and Lieutenant Harold W. Welch got out safely and were captured. Welch was returned on 21 March because of injuries he had received, and the other crewmen were returned on 28 March after much negotiating between the US and Russia. The crew was cleared of blame in a USAF inquiry, and the incident was officially claimed to have been caused by a faulty compass. It was a weak story, as the RB-66A certainly had two, and probably three, compasses, and it was being monitored and possibly directed by ground radars.
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<p>It was most probable that the Russians or East Germans, also very capable people, had jammed the communications and given the crew a false radar signal to steer by.
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<p>Of all the daring reconnaissance missions flown during those years, the best known and most remembered were the more than 400 sorties flown over the island of Cuba in late 1962. It was a time when the United States and Russia were very, very close to war.
