--- --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # World: Fatal Defense by [TIME](/author/time/) Mar 23, 1970 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Mar 23, 1970 5:00 AM CUT Three years ago, when West Germany’s air force was losing almost two Starfighter jets a month in crashes, Kai-Uwe von Hassel, who was then the Federal Republic’s Defense Minister, offered a very personal defense of the ill-fated aircraft. To critics of the U.S.-designed, German-built fighter-bomber. Von Hassel replied that he had such faith in the plane that he had no hesitation about allowing his only son to become a Starfighter pilot. Last week, after a routine 75-minute flight over the North Sea, a Starfighter piloted by Lieut. Joachim von Hassel, 29, crashed into a forest and exploded in flames. Von Hassel became the 55th pilot to lose his life in the 117th Starfighter crash since 1961. World: Fatal Defense ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6876280/world-fatal-defense/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6876280/world-fatal-defense/"},"headline":"World: Fatal Defense","datePublished":"1970-03-23T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-21T19:02:29.452Z","description":"Three years ago, when West Germany's air force was losing almost two Starfighter jets a month in crashes, Kai-Uwe von Hassel, who was then the Federal Republic's Defense Minister, offered a...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6876280/world-fatal-defense/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6876280/world-fatal-defense/","name":"World: Fatal Defense"}}]}] ```