The fighter jet crashed into a house as it avoided falling into a factory with thousands of workers.

50 years ago, near the German city of Cottbus, a plane crash occurred involving a MiG-21 fighter of the GDR Air Force. A plane with a failed engine crashed into a residential building, killing seven people, including the pilot.

The fighter was piloted by 33-year-old Major Peter Makovicka. The flight director ordered him to eject three times, but the pilot remained in the cockpit. Below him were the residential areas of Cottbus, and in front of him was a large textile mill. It was morning and there were several thousand workers at the enterprise.

The MiG-21, descending, flew over the roofs of the plant – the pilot was aiming at the wasteland behind it. But he didn’t make it: at 10:15 local time, the plane crashed into the facade of a five-story panel building – like our Khrushchev-era building – on Shmelvitser Street. The fighter entered the house directly above the entrance, between the second and third floors, and got stuck. The tail part remained sticking out from the facade.

The fuel in the MiG tanks ignited and a fire started. Six women died: five in their apartments, one in the hospital – from carbon monoxide poisoning. Fleeing from the fire, many residents of the house jumped out of the windows – the exit from the upper floors was blocked by a burning plane – 16 people broke their arms and legs. The building was burning from the basement to the fourth floor; 300 rescuers, police and military personnel extinguished the fire.

Major Makovička burned to death in the cockpit. The pilot was posthumously awarded the military order “For Services to the People and Fatherland” in gold and other regalia. This is probably the only case in the history of the GDR army when a military man was so richly rewarded for not following an order.

We must pay tribute to the German builders – two days after the emergency, the hole in the house was repaired; only fresh plaster, repeating the outline of the plane, reminded of the tragedy. “Khrushchev” in Cottbus still stands and the strange stain on the facade is still noticeable.

The cause of the plane crash was the negligence of airfield technicians and an inattentive inspection of the fighter before takeoff. The hatch located in the landing gear niche for inspecting the blades of the first stage of the engine compressor was closed incorrectly: out of 36 screws on its cover, only 4 were tightened to the correct position. When the landing gear was released, they were cut off, and the hatch cover flew into the sky. This led to disruption of the air flow into the compressor and engine stop.