At 1401 hours on 28 January, a USAF T-39 twin-engine, jet trainer military aircraft from Wiesbaden Air Base on a local training mission inadvertently flew into the Soviet Zone of Germany. Two Soviet interceptor aircraft pursued the plane and shot it down in the vincinity of Erfurt about 1514 hours.
Chief of Mission received a warning order at 1700 hours for USMLM to stand by for possible search and rescue operation. Forty minutes later, USMLM was directed to initiate a search for the missing aircraft, and by 1800 hours the first USMLM search team, composed of Army and Air Force officers fluent in Russian and German, departed Berlin for the Erfurt area. At 1915 hours, Chief USMLM met with Acting Chief, SERB and informed him that: "Information has been received of a downed American aircraft in East Germany. A USMLM team has been dispatched to investigate and render assistance under the terms of the Huebner-Malinin Agreement. It is requested that your office give us any information and render any assistance that may be required." Acting Chief, SERB replied that he would inform higher headquarters and notify USMLM as soon as any information was available.
At 2000 hours, when the second USMLM search team was being dispatched, the first search team arrived at the vicinity of the crash site, having covered a distance of approximately 190 miles at anaverage speed of almost 100 miles per hour along icy roads. Directed to search for the crash site about 20 kilometers north of Erfurt, the first search team had proceeded to the area, where an East German civillian informed that a US plane had crashed and burned, killing all crew members. He advised the search team that the best route to the crash site was through Vogelsberg. In Vogelsberg two groups of civillians pointed in the direction of the crash site and reported that a short distance down the road was a demolished American plane with three dead aviator. About this time VOPO vehicles attempted to detain the USMLM search team.
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