In 2018, an episode of the end of the Cold War was declassified, during which the United States almost lost its fastest aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird strategic reconnaissance aircraft, according to the National Interest. This happened in 1987. This aircraft took pictures of Soviet objects in the waters of the Barents and Baltic Seas. Because of this, its route was named “Baltic Express”. The plane liked to fly up to the Soviet border, and then abruptly go back, thereby “mocking” the Soviet air defense.
But that year there was an emergency & ndash; the plane during the flight over the Swedish territorial waters of the Baltic Sea engine failed.
The plane lowered its altitude to 800 meters, it was met by four Swedish Saab 37 Viggen jets, which escorted it from the territory of Sweden to the Nordholz base in West Germany. So it was possible to prevent the disaster ,because everything could have ended very badly if the plane had flown into Soviet territorial waters.
“By safely escorting the plane and not allowing any outside forces to approach the faulty plane, the Swedes were essentially able to prevent a conflict between the two superpowers and possibly prevent an international incident,” the article says.
As a result, four Swedish pilots received medals from the US Air Force Command for their mission, as well as a picture depicting the incident.