On April 6th 1966 a couple of soviet Jak-28P departed at Finowfurt Airfield. They were heading for another airfield in the GDR. West-Berlin was to be crossed during that flight.
At about 3:30pm one of the pilots made an emergency call through the radio. One of the engines failed and he was losing control over the aircraft.
He was told to make an emergeny landing in the soviet sector but failed as his plane was already crashing into the Stößensee located in the British Sector.
Both the pilot and his navigator did not eject from the crashing aircraft.
American and British signal intelligence were listening to the russian radio call at the Teufelsberg which is actually located very close to the Stößensee.
The British immediately sent BRIXMIX personell to the crash site in order to prevent the russians from entering it.
The crash site was sealed off.
A soviet bus carrying the replacement guards for the russian memorial appeared on the site which created tensions between them and the British guarding the site.
British pontons were officially trying to lift the wreckage while divers were trying to gain information from it below.
They soon discovered that the plane was a Jak-28P. It was a soviet state of the art interceptor carrying revolutionary radar systems.
BRIXMIS officials were negotiating with the Soviets trying to gain time.
The bodies of the crew were lifted on April 7th and handed over to the russians. Both engines were secretly lifted. This was achieved by tying them underneath a boat which took them to a concealed spot where they were boxed an flown to Britain (Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough) via Gatow airport.
Besides the engines the radar system was studied by British Surveillance Experts.
Within 48 hours the engines and the main radar unit were flown back from Britain and secretly returned to the crash site to be officially lifted and handed over to the soviets with most of the wreckage.
Only the top secret radar dish was missing. The British officially turned over everything they lifted from the bottom of the lake and the soviets could not admin they were missing that important part. Instead they were hoping that it was the truth and the dish was remaining on the ground.
It took the British a while to get the dish off the ground but they finally lifted it.
The crew made up by Cpt. Boris Kapustin and Lt. Col. Juri Janow was celebrated as heros by the soviets. They gave their lifes in order to save thousands of lifes which would have been lost had the plane crashed into the city.
This view however is not shared by everybody and the crash still remains a mystery. In 2005 a former British Intelligence Specialist who worked at the Teufelsberg tol german television that the ejection seats had no charges and that the pilot was shot in the head with a pistol.
Until today this is not proven but there is specualation wether the crew or at least one of them tried to escape to the West.
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