In 1969, North Korea shot down a U.S. Navy plane over the open sea
At the height of the Cold War, a routine U.S. Navy reconnaissance mission turned into a deadly international crisis when North Korean jets intercepted and destroyed a Lockheed EC-121 aircraft.
On April 15, 1969, North Korean fighter jets shot down a U.S. Navy EC-121 surveillance plane over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 Americans on board. Despite being in international airspace, the slow-moving propeller plane was defenseless against the supersonic MiGs. It remains the largest single loss of American aircrew during the Cold War era.
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