Secret of the Lost Fighter Pilots

[ORAC]

Secrets of the Lost Fighter Pilots: Revealed
Channel 5 Tue Dec 05 8:00 PM (60 min)

The Korean War was one of the most significant air wars of all time, marking the beginning of the jet age and the end of the dogfight era. During the war over 30 British and American fighter pilots disappeared whilst flying the brand new F-86 Sabre jet. This is the story of the quest to reveal their fate.
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I seem to remember reading something about the captured pilots who were taken to Russia to be pumped for information, never to be released. Some info leaked out after the USSR fell apart.

Hopefully worth watching.

[West Coast]

Post a follow up for those of us unable to watch the program if you would.

[BEagle]

An interesting programme.

A lot of historical description about the Korean War itself, then it focused on 2 relatives and their hunt for knowledge about the loss of their fathers. The Chinese authorities permitted access to one crash site and DNA testing revealed that the pilot had been killed in the crash. The pilot was subsequently buried with full military honours in a US military cemetery.

The other crash site was deep inside North Korea, so the quest for information goes on.

West Coast, see PM.

[Jackonicko]

and Budd Mahurin got a much more sympathetic hearing than he's sometimes been given.

[Yellow Sun]

Whilst no directly relevant to the fate of the pilots lost over Korea, if you read Ann Applebaum's book "A History of the Gulag" you will start to understand why it is so difficult to ascertain the fate of individuals sucked into its maw. This would be particularly so if the authorities at the time had wished to conceal their actions.

YS

[JAG3]

Watched it last night, a good programme and interesting to hear about the high level of cooperation with the Russians ie. interrogator. Doubt that the lady trying to find her father will do so.

[MrBernoulli]

Sometime after the Korean war started, and the North Korean air force got their MiGs, it was noticed that they suddenly 'got better' at dogfighting. It turned out that the North Koreans had been supplemented by Russians! USA knew about it but said nothing because they didn't want to be 'openly' fighting Russians, and possibly kick-off WW III. Russians got involved because they wanted to fight the Yanks ..... but they too said nothing to their country folk for pretty much the same reason.