Friday, April 6, 2001

By Dave Ornauer, Stars and Stripes

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — American GI aircraft forced to land in communist territory by an Asian superpower is nothing new.

On July 1, 1968, the Soviet Union forced down a U.S. DC-8 contract flight carrying 214 Vietnam-bound troops, headed for a refueling stop at Yokota. That incident has similarities to the emergency landing of a U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries II spy plane Sunday on China’s Hainan Island.

The EP-3E and its 24-member crew were forced to land on the island after their plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet that intercepted it.

Unlike the Navy’s EP-3E, however, the Seaboard-World Airlines DC-8 forced down by Soviet MiG fighters was a passenger charter originating from McChord Air Force Base, Wash.

The Soviet fighters intercepted the DC-8 and forced it to land on Etoforu Island, part of the disputed Kuril Island chain claimed to this day by Russia and Japan.

The Soviet Union seized the islands close to the end of World War II and built defense installations there.

The DC-8 had been warned by a Japan Self-Defense Force radar site on the northern island of Hokkaido that it had strayed off course and was headed for the Soviet Union before Soviet fighters intercepted it.

Apparently, the warning had come too late.

"We can’t alter our course," pilot Joseph D. Tosolini said, indicating that the plane had already been intercepted.

"It looks like we are over Soviet territory," he radioed five minutes later.

Radio transmissions to two other U.S. airliners in the area indicated the DC-8 had a MiG fighter flying next to one wing and another overhead. Tosolini was forced to land on a desolate, primitive airstrip.

Intense negotiations between Moscow and Washington for the release of the airliner ensued. After being told by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko that a quick release could not be assured, the Soviets relented a day later after receiving an apology for the incident.

Similarly, China wants an apology, but President Bush says none is forthcoming.

Communications were a problem for the Americans downed in Russia: only one Russian on the island spoke English.

"They didn’t give us any billets, but they didn’t give us a hard time, either," Army Pfc. Anthony Myers said during an interview 15 years after the incident.

The troops, who were stuck on the plane, were ordered to shut the windows when a Soviet plane took off from the airstrip. They were allowed to step off the plane for a smoke, as long as they remained within 100 yards of the DC-8.

The Soviets fed them what one soldier called "sort of a Russian C-ration" — brown bread, canned cheese and a block of butter.

The troops tired of the cheese quickly, which became apparent when the plane finally arrived at Yokota for its refueling stop. "Hold the cheese," many troops said in the Yokota terminal snack bar line, where they were offered free food.

The plane continued for Vietnam after refueling at Yokota.

Afterward, Tosolini insisted the plane had not been off course when intercepted by the Soviet fighters. But the Soviets had demanded a statement that the DC-8 "violated Soviet air space." He gave them one for the safety of the passengers.

The pilot said he and the two Soviet jets had flown for 40 minutes to Etoforu following the interception, and Tosolini had no choice but to follow the Soviet fighters.

"I was afraid the MiGs would shoot the plane down if I didn’t," he said.

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