Czech Jet Fires on American Copter Over West Germany : U.S. Craft Lands Safely; Strong Protest Is Filed

A Czechoslovak military jet attacked a U.S. helicopter Saturday over West Germany, launching two to four rockets but failing to hit the copter, the Pentagon disclosed today.

The incident occurred Saturday afternoon north of the German city of Freyung, about one mile inside West German airspace.

The United States filed a strong protest Monday over the incident, Pentagon spokesman Robert B. Sims said. The helicopter was flying a routine surveillance mission along the border with Czechoslovakia and no reason for the attack is known, he added.

Sims said the helicopter was an Army AH-1S Cobra assigned to the 2nd Armored Cavalry at the Feucht Army Airfield in West Germany. The helicopters in that unit fly daily surveillance missions along the border, he said.

17th Violation in 6 Months

The incident was the 17th violation of West German airspace in six months by Warsaw Pact aircraft, Sims said. But it was the first in which an American aircraft was attacked.

The Cobra was armed with 20-millimeter guns and carried two men, Sims said, but no effort was made to return the fire of the L-39 jet fighter. The spokesman called the confrontation brief and a “mismatch,” suggesting that the helicopter was not in a position to attack a jet.

The helicopter managed to evade the missiles and returned to its base without further incident.

“The attack, which took place inside Federal Republic of Germany airspace in clear weather, was observed and confirmed by two separate groups of German civilians,” Sims said.

‘This Irresponsible Act’

“The U.S. government has protested this irresponsible act, which endangered the lives of the U.S. crewmen.”

The spokesman said the Pentagon has been unable to determine precisely how many or what kind of air-to-air missiles were fired at the helicopter or how close the rockets may have come to the copter.

The helicopter was engaged in “an entirely routine U.S. operation” and had done nothing to provoke the attack, Sims continued.

He said that there may have been a second L-39 fighter in the area but that only the attacking jet was in West German airspace.

The spokesman said he did not know how close the helicopter and jet were at the time of the attack or the altitude at which the helicopter was flying. He also declined to release the names of the two crewmen.

No General Alert

Sims said the United States had strongly protested the incident “government-to-government” to Czechoslovakia. He refused to discuss the substance of the protest. Nor would he say whether the Czechs had responded.

Sims said that the helicopter crew radioed during the incident that they were under attack but that no general alert had been sounded. The helicopter returned to its base, the crew was debriefed and an investigation was launched, Sims said.

Sims said that the United States had “no plans” to change its border surveillance operations and that such flights by U.S. helicopters are continuing.