Defection Of Viktor Belenko

On September 6, 1976, Lieutenant Viktor Belenko of the Soviet Air Defense Forces defected by flying his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25P "Foxbat" aircraft from near Vladivostok in the Far East of the Soviet Union to Hakodate Airport of Japan.

Belenko's defection caused tension between Japan and the Soviet Union, especially after Japanese and American specialists disassembled and examined the aircraft. The examination revealed to the US that while impressive in speed, the MiG-25 was not the superfighter that they had feared it to be. It was later returned to the Soviets while it was still disassembled with some parts missing.

Belenko was granted political asylum in and later citizenship of the US, where he became a military consultant, public speaker, and businessman. Belenko later visited Moscow in 1995, after the end of the Soviet Union.

Background

During the Cold War, there were many defections by pilots and aircrews. In addition to pilots defecting of their own volition, there were Western efforts to encourage defections, beginning with the US Operation Moolah aimed at encouraging MiG-15 pilots in North Korea to defect. The Kuomintang ruling Taiwan offered gold to defecting Chinese pilots, and the US Operation Fast Buck was similar to Operation Moolah, although aimed at encouraging a MiG-21 pilot in North Vietnam to defect. Operation Diamond was an Israeli operation similar to Operation Fast Buck, and was successful in getting an Iraqi pilot to defect with his MiG-21.

Belenko was not the only pilot to have defected from the Soviet Union in this way or the first such to defect from a Soviet-bloc country.
In March and May 1953, two Polish Air Force pilots flew MiG-15s to Denmark. Later in 1953, the North Korean pilot No Kum Sok flew his MiG-15 to an American air base in South Korea; this MiG is on permanent display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Later Soviet Captain Aleksandr Zuyev flew his MiG-29 to Trabzon, Turkey, on May 20, 1989. The MiG-29 was returned to the Soviet Union.MiG returned to Soviet Union
United Press International, May 21, 1989.

In September 1976, Belenko was stationed in Chuguyevka Air Base in the Far East. The infrastructure in the base was severely lacking, the troops' morale was low, and when Belenko made suggestions, he was only derided by the political officer. Additionally, his wife Lyudmila, unhappy with the life of a military wife, had told him she was going to file for divorce in October and move with their son, Dmitry (born 1973), back to her parents' home in Magadan. That contributed to Belenko becoming disillusioned with the Communist system.>

Defection flight

On September 6, 1976, Belenko and several other pilots from his squadron of the Soviet Air Defense Force took off from Chuguyevka Air Base around from Vladivostok on a training flight. Belenko followed the flight plan at first, climbing before descending rapidly and heading out to sea.

At around 1:10PM. Japanese radar detected Belenko's plane and at around 1:20PM, two F-4EJ fighters of the 302nd Tactical Fighter Squadron took off from Chitose Air Base near Sapporo.

Belenko's map of Hokkaido had shown only Chitose Air Base, and he had planned to land there. He had expected to be intercepted and escorted by military aircraft to a military base, either Chitose or another one. However, the weather was very cloudy and the Japanese ground radar was not able to adequately track Belenko's aircraft. The Japanese F-4s were new aircraft and had entered JASDF service only in 1974. However, they had poor " look down shoot down" radar and were unable to locate the aircraft either.

With fuel running low and needing to land quickly, he finally located Hakodate Airport

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