Weirdest Thing to Shoot Down an Airplane

[BigGorilla]

I read once about a submarine that was sunk by a truck. The sub torpedoed a freighter which was carrying some trucks as deck cargo. When the ship blew up, the truck went flying up in the air, came down on top of the sub, caused some damage and ended up sinking it.

Got me thinking, there must be some weird stuff that has "shot" down aircraft over the years. Not including Corporal Dum-Dum (from Sgt Rock) throwing grenades up at them.

[Romantic Technofreak]

I posted this on 12 o´clock High already, but got no answer:

There is an uniqe case that an unarmed civil airliner "killed" a nightfighter. After the German retreat from southern France, the Deutsche Lufthansa established an aerial connection between Germany and Spain (Barcelona). Among the airplanes used for that were some big four-engined Junkers Ju 290, before used as Atlantic reconnoisaters, now stripped of nearly all military items except the rear radar warning equipment. Of course, those flights could only be performed at night.
One time one of these planes, the Factory No. 0176 D-AITQ "Preussen", neared the still German-occupied northern Italian coast near Rapallo at a height of 1100 ft, when the rear radar warning equipment showed the fast approach of a night fighter. Obviously to gain speed, captain Hugo Wiskandt pushed the control stick, while engineer Franz Preuschoff entered the rear (former gun-) station for observations. Shortly after this, Preuschoff noticed an explosion and spinning debris. Asked "Are we burning?" he answered "No, the other one!"
This and rescue measures noticed the next day showed that some miscalculation must have happened to the night fighter pilot. Trying to follow the airliner, he crashed into the sea!
This happened on March 10, 1945.

From the book "Die großen Dessauer" (about Junkes Ju 90/290/390) by Karl Kössler and Günter Ott, Planegg 1993 (place and time of publishing), page 123/124

Is there also an "Allied" source for this story? Is there anything known about the nightfighter or the fate of its crew? (might have happened also one day earlier, i.e. 3/9/45)

[robert]

Not quite the same, because it was a ramming attack, but an unarmed Avro Anson trainer bringing down a Heinkel He 111 during the Battle of Britain must be mentioned:

"Sgt. Bruce Hancock was a trainee bomber pilot in a Avro Anson and he saw a Heinkel bomber attacking a small airfield in Gloucester (Windrush) on the 18th of August 1940. The Heinkel then turned towards the Anson, attacking it. Hancock turned off his landing lights and when the bomber closed to about 150yds Hancock banked violently to port and flew into the the path of the Heinkel. Hancock died in the impact as did the crew of the Heinkel. Eye witnesses on the ground said that Hancock deliberately rammed the Heinkel."

from http://www.the-battle-of-britain.co.uk/pilots/Ha-pilots.htm

A memorial to Hancock was erected at the site a few years ago.

[GregP]

One of the best was a test flight of the Grumman F-11F Tiger. The pilot approached a towed target from 20,000 feet, dived to gain speed, and shot at it from about 13,500 feet in a gradual descent. He then selected afterburner, steepened the dive, and pulled up at 10,000 feet right into the path of his own bullets. The Tiger suffered three hits, including one in the engine and one in the engine intake, and ultimately had to be abandoned via ejection seat.

So, the pilot shot himself down!

This is a well documented incident.

If my memory serves, and it has proven porous in the past, the year was 1952.

[robert]

quote:Originally posted by GregP

One of the best was a test flight of the Grumman F-11F Tiger. The pilot approached a towed target from 20,000 feet, dived to gain speed, and shot at it from about 13,500 feet in a gradual descent. He then selected afterburner, steepened the dive, and pulled up at 10,000 feet right into the path of his own bullets. The Tiger suffered three hits, including one in the engine and one in the engine intake, and ultimately had to be abandoned via ejection seat.

So, the pilot shot himself down!

This is a well documented incident.

If my memory serves, and it has proven porous in the past, the year was 1952.


Missed by only 14 years! :D

"Unrelated to the Tiger's other gun-firing problems was a well-known incident in which BuNo 138620 was shot down by one of its own 20-mm projectiles during firing trials in a dive on 21 September, 1966. There were at least three hits, one on the windshield, one on the nose cone, and one on the starboard intake, and a shell was digested by the engine. The Grumman test pilot, Tom Attridge, managed to get out of the aircraft after crash landing."

- Grumman Aircraft since 1929, by Rene J. Francillon

[simon]

My friend's father was an aircrash investigator in the UK and he told me about an incident in which a helicopter was destroyed (Rather than shot down) by a First Aid Kit.

An Army Gazelle had inexplicably crashed on exercise killing its two crew, there was no obvious mechanical failure, or damage from an external source, so the investigator's were mystified as to what caused the crash, until someone noticed the first aid kit was missing from it's usual place.

What they eventually worked out was that whilst flying at low level the First Aid box had broken free, the pilot's instinctive reaction was to turn round to see what the noise behind him was, unfortunately the combination of movements forced the stick forward and footpedals down so that he put the helicopter straight into the ground.

[Ricky]

Of course there is the saga of the F-16s which have crashed owing to pilots having difficultly in operating their 'piddle packs'

[BuzzLightyear]

A member of the American 56th Fighter Group found he was being pursued by a German fighter. The German was behind and below. The P-47 dropped its fuel tanks, one of which hit the Messerschmitt, knocking off one of its wings.

[ygb]

Not WW2, sorry...
During the war in Kuwait in 1991, an F-15 killed an Iraqi helicopter with a laser-guided bomb.

Quote from another website, just to add a few details:
quote:
One Strike Eagle actually scored a kill on a Iraqi helicopter with a laser-guided bomb on 14 February 1991. The helicopter had been targeted while on the ground but took off after the launch of the LGB. The WSO, undeterred, kept the helicopter in the crosshairs of his LANTIRN pod until the bomb went home. At last notice, this was the only air-to-air kill of the Strike Eagle.

[R Leonard]

Lieut. Lou Menard of VBF-12, operating from USS Randolph off the coast of Japan on 15 February 1945, was leading a division that was giving chase to a low flying Japanese intruder that was just managing to stay of gun range. In his words: "I fired one rocket and it missed him. It went right over top of his wing and landed in the water. When it hit, the shell went off and made a huge geyser of water. He flew into it and his plane disintegrated." Other members of the division were Ensigns Manhold, Barr, and Glasser, all in F6F's.

In this case, close enough was good enough. Probably the first air-to-air rocket victory for the USN.

Regards,

Rich