Hobby Master Archive

In October 1973 the first new MiG-23MS arrived in Syria. On April 19, 1974 Captain al-Masry of the Syrian Air Force was on a weapons test mission and spotted eight Israeli F-4E Phantoms. Realizing he had to attack first he charged the F-4Es breaking their formation. Making a turn as hard as the MiG-23MS would allow al-Masry rolled in behind some F-4Es. He fired three missiles downing two but his MiG-23MS was hit by friendly SAM SA-6s destroying the aircraft but somehow al-Masry managed to escape the wreckage.