[5] Two MiG-15 aircraft took off from Kuçova Air Base, piloted by Anastas Ngjela and Mahmut Hysa.

[6][7] The American fighter jet was surrounded and forced to land on the unfinished runway at Rinas Airport.

[8][9] The plane was impounded and the American pilot Major Howard J. Curran was arrested.

[10] Curran was released on January 11, 1958, while the plane was placed in the Gjirokastër castle museum.

The T-33 air incident was just one of at least eight that occurred between Albania and foreign powers from 1948 to the late 1970s.