On January 14th, 1975, Major Peter Makowicka, 33, is on a training mission with his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG 21 SPS „849“. During approach on the military airbase Cottbus, German Democratic Republic (Eastern Germany), a cover latch on the engine compressor section, which has been insufficiently secured by a maintenance technician, opens. The engine draws air and switches off. He receives the order to deploy the ejection seat to save himself and let the plane go down.
He disobeys the order.
Makovicka pulls up to prevent the plane from crashing into the TKC [Textile Combinate Cottbus] with its thousands of workers, intending to let the plane crash into an empty field instead.
He doesn't get that far anymore. In the residential area behind the factory site, the aircraft grazes the roof of a building and at ~10.15 am pierces a "Plattenbau" (a 5-story large-panel system building) across the street.
Mackovicka and five women are killed on the spot.
fire department report
At 10.19, Commando Fire Brigade Cottbus receives the alert. TLF 15 1:3 [triple combination pumper] and LF 16 1:8 [fire engine] respond immediately.
At 10.20, citizen Erich Schroff calls the emergency number to report the plane crash, and the OD alarms the remaining forces of Commando F.
At 10.21, LF 16/II 1:4 [fire engine], SW 1:1 [foam engine], RTW 1:1 [ambulance], DL30 1:0 [turntable ladder] and LF 16/I, who are nearby for a sport event, are alerted via radio. Having observed the smoke cloud, they are already in preparation and march out without delay at 10:22.
Arrivals
10.15: TLF 15 G5
10.26: LF 16/I, LF 16/II, SW, RTW
10.28: DL 30 (to pick up the chief and 3 officers)
At the same time, a B 1000 type fire engine 1:5 arrives from the Textile Combinate's works fire service, four comrades follow by foot.
At 10.41, the VPKA's [People's Police District Office] Leader F arrives, who alarms the RAW's (Reichsbahn repair shops) fire engines at 10.46. Their TLF 1:3 and LF 8 - TS 8- STA 1:5 arrive at 10.51.
The NVA's [National People's Army] fire engines arrive almost simultaneously, as they had observed the crash and have practically the same distance to cover.
Coincidentally, seven DRK [German Red Cross] ambulances were nearby and can quickly transport the injured to the hospital.
Situation
The plane had hit the second floor of the apartment block. The fire had spread from the basement to the 4th floor.
It is unknown
whether the plane carried ammo
whether all fuel tanks had burst and spilled
whether the security systems (pressure bottles) had responded or not
whether stability of the object was warranted despite the structural damage and fire exposure
whether the electrics were still live and explosive gas-air-mixtures had developed
The fire chief correctly deduces acute danger from explosions. No persons are visible in the windows or on the balconies, so he does not order deployment of the jumping blanket.
It is decided to attack the fire with the TLF from the street side and to evacuate the other entries. 18 doors are broken and the flats searched for civilians. The search is finished by 10.40.
The decisions later prove to be right. NVA comrades disclose that the plane still carried more than 800 liters of fuel. Upon impact, all four tanks had ruptured and the entire fuel escaped instantaneously, explaining the intensive burn and multiple, deflagration-like flare-ups on the 1st to 4th floors.
A stairwell advance is made impossible due to extremely high temperatures of ~1000°C. Constantly, molten aluminium and magnesium flows and drips down. The stair between the 1st and 3rd floor is destroyed. It would be irresponsible to endanger the firefighters.
The opening of the smoke dampers had caused an intense suction effect, causing the fire to spread quickly to all floors. The opening of apartment doors facilitates spreading to the flats.
Simultaneously, a second attack ("Section II") is staged from the west, or "balcony side". The initial attempt to use extinguishing foam is abandoned to prevent corrosive burns and suffocation of potential survivors.
at 11.30 am
the whole building, suddenly and without forewarning, collapses from top to bottom in a rapid and symmetrical fashion reminiscent of controlled demolitions, drowning half of Cottbus in a thick cloud of fine-grained concrete powder. The very next day, representatives of the Warsaw Pact member nations convened to invoke the casus foederis and declared the global war on…
…oh sorry, wait, wait, wait, wrong script.
at 11.30 am
the fire is, by and large, extinguished.
All in all, 200-300 firefighters, police, medics and NVA soldiers are on the scene. Sixteen residents suffer severe injuries, many have jumped out of the windows in panic. One woman dies in hospital, raising the death toll of the accident to 7.
aftermath
The area is sealed off hermetically. Two days later, only a patch in the wall remains as evidence for what happened.
The newspaper "AND" reports only that a plane crashed, killing six people — and that an official commission has been tasked with the investigation.
West German journalists get wind of the story. The Stasi (Ministry for State Security) documents how one journalist tries to contact a family in Cottbus to find out what happened. They also intercept letters from Cottbussers into the West, six are documented.
"That's something, isn't it? And you aren't even allowed to say a word! But one does wonder, after all…",
a letter to Darmstadt goes. One to Karlsruhe:
"The atmosphere is quite gloomy here. Hopefully the airfield is going to be relocated soon, this is the fourth plane to crash already…"
A teacher writes to Flensburg:
"Within two days you could hardly see a scratch on the building, all made new. In such things they are quick. Among the population, curses are the order of the day. Of course there are no protests. But I believe they will have to think of something now."
The technician who failed to close the latch properly was sentenced to five years in jail.
Major Peter Makowicka, likely the only NVA hero ever to disobey an order, posthumously receives the Kampforden für Verdienste um Volk und Vaterland in Gold (Combat medal for the merits for the People and Fatherland) and other awards.
The building, Schmellwitzer Straße 2, Cottbus, stands to this day.
sources
- MiG-Absturz von 1975: Die Wahrheit über den Todes-Flug von Cottbus, B.Z., March 17, 2014
- der-jagdflieger.de - Gedenktafel
- Einschätzung des Einsatzes der Feuerwehren beim Flugzeugabsturz am 14.01.1975, Einsatzarchiv feuerwehr-cottbus.de
- Ein seltsames Motorengeräusch und dann eine Explosion, Lausitzer Rundschau, February 26, 2014
- Interactive Map, Lausitzer Rundschau
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edit: forgot a word