All News & Notes

Photograph: Henri Hoffren / Suomen Ilmailumuseo (Finnish Aviation Museum) Soviet bombers shot the Kaleva down on 14th June 1940. The airliner was on its daily scheduled run from Tallinn to Helsinki. Everyone on board died in the crash into the sea near Keri lighthouse island off the Estonian coast. The reason for the barbarous attack has never been fully resolved. Over the years numerous attempts have been made to find the wreck of the Kaleva. As long as these were unsuccessf

Max Heldring at Aviationbookreviews.com has reviewed Kaleva Down. He concludes his review with the sentence: 'A smooth and exciting read with an unexpected and surprising ending.' Click the button below to read the full report: The above may beg the question: Is Kaleva Down an aviation book? I like to think of Kaleva Down as a Cold War action thriller with an aviation twist. The book should appeal to anyone, who is fond of 20th century historical thrillers. The flying episo

Miika Haavisto has been designing the cover for Kaleva Down and created this dramatic image of the doomed Kaleva.

The historical backdrop for ’Kaleva Down’ is the shooting down of the Finnish Kaleva airliner by Soviet warplanes. For basic information of the Kaleva shootdown incident in 1940, please check for instance the Wikipedia page 'Kaleva (airplane)'. The short YouTube video ’ Last flight of Kaleva - Aero airliner OH-ALL shootdown 14.6.1940 by Soviet Air Force ’, despite the texts in Finnish and the 14 year old video’s rather basic animation, provides a good summary of the incident.