RCAF Aircraft Crossing the Czechoslovak Border (July 29, 1953)

On July 29, 1953, four RCAF aircraft accidentally crossed over the Czechoslovakian border after disappearing from American Air Traffic Control radars. They had been directed by the Americans to intercept an unidentified radar plot (which was not within the scope of their duties as a non-occupying force in Germany), but were temporarily lost due to radar fade. When the RCAF fighters were discovered to be on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, they were immediately recalled and returned to base without incident. 

This event was worrying for the Canadians, who had been closely following the above incidents in which British and American aircraft were shot down in the region by Eastern Bloc fighters. Canadian lives could have been in danger because of the directions they had received from the Americans, which caused tensions within NATO and reopened discussions of the Canadian military’s role in Europe as part of NATO.