It was 1962 and the Cuban Missile Crisis was alive and well. In fact it was on the verge of spiraling the world into a full out Nuclear war as both the US and Soviet Union mobilized nuclear missiles.
On October 27th, 1962, the world would come a lot closer to that nuclear war than anyone could imagine. Air Force Captain, Charles Maultsby, was flying a U-2 spy plane to the North pole and collect air samples on special filter paper to detect radioactivity. The Soviet Union was conducting nuclear tests at Novaya Zemlya, an island off Siberia or approximately 1,000 miles south of the North pole.
As Maultsby’s U-2 approached the North pole, his compass became useless and the needle automatically pointed downward the Earth’s magnetic field. This was expected due to the nature of the flight, and it forced Maultsby to revert to the most basic navigation method; reading the stars. Unfortunately for Maultsby, the sky was filled with lights as he was experiencing the Northern lights. He tried his best to prepare celestial charts to navigate but was finding it difficult with the bright and dancing stars of the Northern lights. He collected what he believed were the samples over the North pole and the reversed course back to home base.
On his route to what he thought was home he kept an eye out for his United States air rescue plane, which was supposed to rendezvous with him. The intercept aircraft was dubbed “Duck Butt” and was able to communicate with him via radio transmission. However, Maultsby could not see any aircraft in the darkness.
In an effort to help Maultsby spot him, the pilot of Duck Butt advised via radio he would fire flares every five minutes for him to follow. But Maultsby could only see black sky and the radio transmissions were getting weaker and weaker, until Maultsby picked up a stronger signal. Unfortunately, for him, this signal was playing balalaika music and chatter in Russian.
Even worse for Maultsby, his aircraft had been picked up by Soviet radar as it entered Soviet airspace and MiG fighters were scrambled from the Chukotka region air bases. The Soviet pilots were given orders to intercept the enemy aircraft and shoot it down.
Maultsby activated emergency measures by signalling “Mayday Mayday” over the radio. Nearly 1,000 miles away at Galena Air Station, 2 F-102 Delta Dagger intercept jets were dispatched. Due to the Cuban missile crisis, they were converted from conventional weapons to nuclear-tipped Falcon air-to-air missiles. They were given orders to locate Maultsby and escort him home. While they searched for Maultsby, he was quickly running out of fuel as he continued to try to find his way home. He was forced to shut off his engine and electronics and glided with MiGs tracking him from behind. Fortunately for Maultsby, the MiGs were running low on fuel and had to head back to refuel. Out of nowhere, two fighter jets with the red tails appeared off his wings. Maultsby activated his radio and heard an American voice say, “Welcome home”. Had the MiGs and the F-102 Delta Daggers met and engaged each other, the F-102 would have unleashed nuclear weapons them. This certainly would have triggered a nuclear war.
Smooth