The Canberra shootdown incident occurred on 10 April 1959, when an

English Electric Canberra The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havilla ...

B(I)58 of the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

was shot down by an

F-86F Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Sov ...

of the

Pakistan Air Force The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) (; ) is the aerial warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces, tasked primarily with the aerial defence of Pakistan, with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy when re ...

over Rawat, near

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

while performing a

aerial reconnaissance Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or Strategy, strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. The role of reconnaissance can fulfil a variety of requirements including Artillery observer, artillery spott ...

mission. This incident is regarded as the first aerial kill of the Pakistan Air Force.

Incident

Because it was

Eid al-Fitr Eid al-Fitr () is the first of the two main Islamic holidays, festivals in Islam, the other being Eid al-Adha. It falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide becaus ...

most PAF personnel had been given the day off, with only a skeleton crew, mostly comprising unmarried officers and airmen, on duty. The Indian Canberra entered Pakistani airspace while on an

mission. Pakistani radar had detected that an intruder had flown in from Indian airspace, heading towards Gujrat, Pakistan. Repeated warnings were issued to the intruder to land at Gujrat, where it was spotted. Two F-86F Sabres flown by Flt. Lt. M. N. Butt and Flt. Lt. M. Yunis were scrambled from

PAF Base Peshawar Pakistan Air Force Base, Peshawar is an Air base, airbase of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) located in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the operational site of the PAF's Northern Air Command, located to the east of Bacha Khan Intern ...

to intercept it. Flt. Lt. M. N. Butt attempted to bring down the Canberra by firing his machine guns, but the Canberra was flying at an altitude of more than , beyond the operational ceiling of the F-86F. When Yunis took over, the Canberra suddenly lost height while executing a turn over Rawalpindi. Yunis fired a burst from his guns which hit the Canberra at an altitude of and brought it down over Rawat. Both crew members of the IAF Canberra Sqn Ldr J.C. Sengupta, and Flt Lt S.N. Rampal ejected and were captured by Pakistani authorities. They were subsequently released and repatriated a day later after remaining in detention for some time.

Claims

Pakistan claims that the mission of the Canberra was to take aerial photographs of strategic installations between Lahore and Rawalpindi and that the Canberra had been warned both by hand-signals and warning shots in front of the plane. The Foreign Office of Pakistan published a press note allegedly with a written statement of Sqn. Ldr. J.C. Sengupta, which revealed the hostile nature of his mission to graph certain military targets in Pakistan. The press note emphasized the fact that the incident took place on the Eid when the Indian Air Force expected that the Pakistani defence personnel, like the rest of the nation, would be celebrating Eid and it would consequently make their espionage mission less risky and more promising on that day. Indian Defence Minister,

V. K. Krishna Menon Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon (3 May 1896 – 6 October 1974) was an Indian academic, independence activist, politician, lawyer, and statesman. During his time, Menon contributed to the Indian independence movement and India's foreign r ...

and Indian Ambassador to the U.S.

M. C. Chagla Mahommedali Currim Chagla (30 September 1900 – 9 February 1981) was an Indian jurist, diplomat, and Cabinet Minister who served as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court from 1947 to 1958. Early life and education Born on 30 September 19 ...

, claim that the Canberra was on a routine operational flight to photograph Indian territory in Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir and that it must have strayed over to Pakistan due to a navigational error, which was easy to do at a height of fifty thousand feet. The claim also alleges that no warning was given before the Canberra was shot down.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canberra shootdown, 1959 Aircraft shootdown incidents in the Indo-Pakistani wars 20th century in Punjab, Pakistan 20th-century aircraft shootdown incidents Aviation accidents and incidents in 1959 April 1959 in Asia History of the Indian Air Force History of the Pakistan Air Force Disasters in Punjab, Pakistan 1959 in Pakistan 1959 in India Conflicts in 1959