The radar picked up the Hornets below in the cloud bank, heading west, about two and a half kilometers ahead. Dushak and Kostenko both prepared a missile. Before they could fire, the Canadians made a sudden hard bank, in an attempt to turn on their attackers. Dushak decided to make a firing pass on the Canadians before they could turn squarely around to face them. But with the action taking place so near the cloud cover, he couldn't get the missile to signal lock-on. The high sun reflection off the clouds was confusing the missile seeker. He prepared to use the gun. The pipper in the HUD display tracked the target. Dushak slammed the controls around trying to get the pipper to line up in the center of the target dial. It started to do so and Dushak squeezed off a burst. Missed! The Canadians were still pulling around, Dushak trying to swing his aircraft into them. He failed to get a suitable position, and the Canadians swept under them at very high speed. Dushak instinctively pushed the throttle forward and pulled the stick back, trying to get altitude. Where would he find the Canadians?
Shashka 1 and Shashka 2 were not having as much luck. They approached the other three aircraft, assuming they were two CF-18 Hornets chasing a MiG-29. Unfortunately, it was three CF-18s. The Canadians got on the tail of the MiGs, and Shashka 1 made a fetal error. He tried to make a level turn at high speed to push enough g to prevent the Canadians from getting missile lock with their Sidewinders. He succeeded, but the MiG-29 lost energy in the turn faster than the CF-18. One of the Canadian pilots pulled in close enough to Vlasov's MiG to get off a lucky shot. It clipped the wing root. At such high g, the damage from the 20mm cannon burst was lethal. The main wing member was damaged, and the pressure shattered it. The plane spun out of control with a crumpled wing. Vlasov did not manage to escape. His wingman, German
Burlakov, was only a pilot third class. Pitted against three enemy fighters, he stood little chance. He managed to evade the Canadian who had downed his flight leader by making a sudden upward climb. But the other two Canadians were following close on his heels and launched two Sidewinders. One impacted in the tail pipe. The plane held together for several seconds, allowing Burlakov to eject.
Shashka 3 and Shashka 4 now found themselves at about 1,500 meters in a clear blue sky. They headed in the direction of the Canadian aircraft, but their radars picked up no sign of them. There was no warning sign from the Syrena and they could see nothing overhead. The first sign they saw of the enemy fighters was the glare of their tracers as they came sizzling by from down and to the left. The Canadians had managed to maneuver into their blind spot below and behind them. The CF-18s roared overhead. Kostenko's MiG had taken a hit in the outer wing panel, and Dushak's had taken at least one hit in the left air intake. The damage was not serious. Dushak and Kostenko tried to follow the Canadians into the climb, but then noticed the other three Canadian CF-18s coming up towards them. It was time for a fast getaway.
The MiGs had an altitude advantage and Dushak planned to use it. He nosed his aircraft down and aimed directly at the approaching Canadian formation. He radioed to Kostenko to release IR flares from the tail dispenser to distract any heat-seeking missiles. The rate of closure between the two groups was tremendous, more than 1,100 kilometers an hour. Dushak aimed at the left-most Canadian fighter with his cannon, and as they reached the 1.5 kilometer range, he fired. Although his burst failed to impact, Kostenko got a solid hit on the right tail surface of one of the Canadian planes. Although Dushak and Kostenko were pulling away too fast to see it, the tail eventually ripped off, and the Canadian pilot punched out.
The two MiG-29s headed to the ground at breakneck speed trying to evade their more numerous tormentors. Luckily for them, the Canadians were at the outer limits of their fuel endurance and had begun to head home. Dushak and Kostenko were under the cloud bank, approaching Mach 1. Dushak could feel his heart pounding, and he was soaking wet from his own sweat. His mouth had that metallic tang you get from too much adrenaline. His first concern was that they had escaped safely. But as he calmed down, he began to worry about the Sukhoi squadron they were supposed to escort. What had happened to them? Well, at least his formation had pulled the Canadians off the bombers. But at some cost: They had lost six fighters. The Canadians also must have lost some aircraft, judging from the odd five-plane formation they had encountered.
Dushak checked the fuel status. The high-speed fighting and the heavy use of afterburner had really eaten up fuel. They were already over the Czech frontier, only ten minutes from base. Dushak was glad to be alive; Kostenko was itching for a little revenge. "Shashka Three, this is Shashka Four, we have pigeons at 3 o'clock low." "Pigeons" was slang for slow flying, vulnerable enemy aircraft. It was remarkable that Kostenko had seen them — a flight of four fighter-bombers, hugging the ground to their right. "Shashka Four, we have to be careful. Lefs confirm they're pigeons and not falcons before hammering them. Leave off the radar. Let's hit them with missiles."
The MiG-29s gracefully banked down. The enemy aircraft hadn't seen them yet. As they got closer, it was obvious they were hostiles. The peculiar bent wing and chevron tail of the F-4 Phantom are unmistakable. Dushak radioed Kostenko and told him not to use the Khrom Nikel identification system. They were apparently West German aircraft, and they had spotted the MiGs coming down on them. The four aircraft broke up into two groups of two. They jettisoned their payloads and began to pull up, trying to get some altitude for maneuver. Dushak took the right pair. The range was 1,500 meters, almost close enough for the gun. After the experience earlier, Dushak decided to salvo two R-60 missiles to have a better certainty. He heard a good clear signal of missile lock-on and fired two missiles. Kostenko had reacted slightly faster, and three missiles were tracking the two Phantoms.
Dushak's two missiles struck the rear of one of the Phantoms, in two nearly simultaneous explosions. The blast severed the left stabilizer. The airplane began a peculiar bucking motion, obviously brought about by the loss of the tail surface. The plane began to go out of control and the crew ejected. Kostenko's single missile impacted in the rear of the aircraft's tail pipe. There was a sharp blast, followed by a spurt of debris. The second Phantom continued flying, although obviously damaged. Kostenko had closed on his target and began firing with the 30mm cannon. The Phantom was probably flying on a single engine, as its speed had dropped considerably. It was unable to maneuver, and Kostenko hammered its left wing with cannon fire. Large pieces of wing panel flew back, and Kostenko shifted the gun toward the fuselage with a quick jerk of the stick. Hydraulic fluid or fuel began to burn, and the crippled plane nosed over. The crew ejected safely before the plane splashed all over the pasture below in a fiery smear of light and smoke.
The other two Phantoms had headed back to Germany and neither Kostenko nor Dushak could see any evidence of them. With fuel beginning to run low, Dushak ordered the pair home, and they were soon over Milovice air base. As they approached the base, it was obvious that it had been subjected to another attack. There were plumes of smoke from the repair hangars, and a pall of dust over the runways. The tower was not responding to radio calls. The usual secondary airfield for the regiment was Kbely, outside Prague, but that strip had been smashed up badly the day before and was probably not operating yet. Dushak radioed Kostenko to follow him to the Klecany-Vodochody strip north of Prague. There was a chance it had escaped today's fighting.