In the Austrian Airpower magazine had published details of unusual history that took place on 18 October 2002. On this day, the U.S. air force requested permission to fly over the territory of Austria for the transport of DC-10 aircraft, manned by a German crew.

However, after the issuance of the permit by the Austrian authorities suspected something was amiss because aminomar DC-10 actually belonged to the aircraft refueler. Besides, registration for this flight was changed twice in a short time.

To clarify the situation, the air force of Austria sent for the exploration of the two fighters Draken Swedish production. Seeing the “inspectors”, the American aircraft was deviated from its original flight path.

Having caught up with the intruder, fighter pilots discovered the “forgery”: instead of the declared commercial DC-10 they saw created on its basis the military tanker KC-10, which was accompanied by two undeclared fighter stealth F-117A “Nighthawk”. Requests to transit was not – but Austria and would not give such permission. In accordance with the instructions, Austrian pilots photographed the entire warm “company”.

The circumstances of this strange Scam became clear later. At that time the US air force actively participated in hostilities in Afghanistan and at the same time were preparing for the invasion of Iraq. Because of their small range of flight F-117A could not fly from European bases without refueling.

Five months later started the American operation in the Persian Gulf, and probably the two “Austrian Nighthawk” became part of the Armada, which sprayed the regime of Saddam Hussein.


Source — Airpower.at