Escaped From The USSR On A Fighter - How Was The Fate Of The Deserter Pilot Viktor Belenko

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

MIG pilot: what happened to the deserter pilot Viktor Belenko after fleeing from the USSR

On September 6, 1976, the personnel and passengers of the Hakodate International Airport in Japan had the opportunity to observe an amazing picture: a military MIG-25P under the tail number 31 landed on the airfield intended for civilian aircraft without warning. However, at that time there was hardly a polymath capable immediately determine the type of the newest interceptor model or the country from which it arrived - only a couple of hours later, all the world media vied with each other to talk about the desperate escape of Senior Lieutenant Viktor Belenko from the communist USSR.

An exemplary officer

Who was Victor Belenko and what prompted him to act incredibly insolent? Oddly enough, there is still no single version on this matter.

It is known that there were no muddy spots in the pilot's biography like suspicious contacts or relatives abroad, otherwise he would hardly have been at the helm of an aircraft that had record speeds for that time and the ability to climb. Coming from a family of workers, a graduate of the Armavir Flight School, an exemplary family man with his wife and little son, Belenko had an ideal Soviet military biography.

Belenko did not try to meet his family left in Russia

True, Victor received the appointment to the Chuguevka airfield, located in the Far East, with a scandal: he threatened the commander of the Rostov unit, where he served as an instructor pilot, to write a report about the theft and drunkenness reigning there, after which they preferred to quietly float the desperate guy to hell. But this, it seems, spoke in favor of Belenko - a person wants to honestly fulfill his duties, dreams of the sky and high speeds, is not afraid to throw an unpleasant truth into the eyes of his elders … Even though now he is on the board of honor with the postscript "exemplary officer"!

What prompted Belenko to desertion?

High-speed flight across borders

And this is where the territory of conspiracy theories begins.

At first, the official propaganda of the USSR explained everything simply: the plane went off course, ran out of fuel and made an emergency landing in Hakodate, where methods of physical and mental pressure were immediately applied to the pilot, forcing him to sign an application for political asylum. Then, when it became clear that Belenko had committed his act in a sober mind and firm memory, the deserter was sentenced in absentia to capital punishment, and a little later and “killed”, announcing to Soviet citizens: the traitor to the Motherland had died in a plane crash.

Having handed over a brand new MIG into the hands of a potential enemy, Belenko not only revealed military secrets, but also inflicted material damage on the USSR in the amount of about 2 billion rubles, forcing hastily to make changes to the system of recognition of "friend or foe"

The version, put forward at a later time, considered the pilot a defector, recruited by the CIA long before his famous flight. Say, it was no coincidence that Belenko broke through to the Far East with a scandal and left his native shores for a reason on a high-speed MIG-25 - without exaggeration, a miracle of technical thought of that time. Supporters of the "spy" version consider all this a deliberate operation of the American special services. It was not for nothing that the representatives of the latter dismantled the plane that was in their hands almost by cogs, having received the freshest data on the achievements of the Soviet aircraft building, metallurgical and radio-electronic industries.

Belenko himself argued that his act was dictated by a thirst for freedom and an unwillingness to silently put up with numerous violations and accidents in military aviation units. And some of his colleagues said that the man decided to escape without receiving the rank of captain and the position of chief of staff of the squadron, which he was counting on.

Belenko, transported to America with numerous precautions, continued his career in a foreign land

Anyway, on September 6, 1967, Lieutenant Viktor Belenko lifted his plane into the air to perform a flight exercise and left his homeland, his wife and son forever. The pilots who were at the airfield that day noted the unusual pallor of their colleague, and a little later a map with calculations of the flight route was found at his house, so there is clearly no need to talk about impulsiveness.

Victor Belenko's American Dream

The plane, after a short altercation with the Japanese authorities, was returned to Russia. And Belenko himself settled in the United States, where he managed to change many positions: he taught air combat tactics at the military academy, worked as a consultant to government agencies on Soviet aviation, helped improve the armament of American fighters, lectured on Soviet traditions, starred in advertisements, spoke on the radio and television and co-authored the book "The MiG Pilot" with John Barron.

The former pilot did not try to restore contact with his family even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, especially since in America he managed to acquire a wife and three children. Alas, not for long - the marriage ended in divorce, after which the bulk of Belenko's property went to his second wife.

In recent years, Belenko has disappeared from the field of view of journalists

And in Russian fighters since the escape of the risky pilot, a new detail has appeared - the "Belenkovskaya button", pressing on which removes the blocking of firing at their aircraft provided for by the MIG. This is in case a deserter again turns out to be at the helm of one of them, heading for the cordon. Before Belenko, no one thought about the need for such a button …