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#4639086 11/30/23 05:08 PM
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Viktor Belenko, Who Defected to the West in a Jet Fighter, Dies at 76



On a clear late summer day in 1976, a plane popped up on the radar just off the coast of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It had been flying a mere 100 feet off the water, low enough to avoid detection. Now, suddenly, it climbed up to 20,000 feet. Clearly, the pilot wanted to be seen.

The aircraft flew toward the southwestern port city of Hakodate. It circled the airport twice, then prepared to land. The plane, identifiable now as a Soviet fighter jet, nearly collided with a 727 airliner as it touched down. It plowed past the end of the tarmac, blew out its front wheel and came to a stop not far from a busy highway.

As ground crews rushed toward it, the plane’s canopy opened. A sturdy blond man emerged with a gun and fired two shots in the air to warn onlookers away. When the authorities arrived, he climbed down to meet them.

His name was Lt. Viktor Belenko. He was there to defect, he said, along with his jet, a supersonic interceptor called a MiG-25. The plane had stoked fear among Western militaries for years. Now, thanks to Lieutenant Belenko, they had a pristine specimen to examine. George Bush, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, called the incident an “intelligence bonanza.”

Lieutenant Belenko, who went on to settle in the United States, died on Sept. 24 at a senior living center near Rosebud, a small town in Southern Illinois. He was 76. His son Paul Schmidt said his death, which was not widely reported at the time, came after a brief illness.

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Unfortunately I can't read the article. In retrospect, he chose an ideal country to defect to because had he tried that in Europe he would have been shot down by NATO air defense.

Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 11/30/23 05:16 PM.

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NY Times wants $ to show their story

this one better

https://www.yahoo.com/news/one-worlds-most-famous-soviet-200917870.html

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Thanks for that link NFB. I won't give the NYT even one penny of my money. EVER.


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Weird, I could see the NYT story on my phone yesterday but can't see it on my PC today.


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They give you a free reading at random. Bet if yesterday when you read that for free and you refresh it, it will ask you to pay.

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Originally Posted by NoFlyBoy
They give you a free reading at random. Bet if yesterday when you read that for free and you refresh it, it will ask you to pay.


I actually went back to it a couple of times yesterday.


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I read the book on this. Loved it

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I remember reading an article in Reader’s Digest that I think was an excerpt from Lt. Belenko’s autobiographical telling of his defection. One part that stuck with me was how he was certain that grocery stores and shopping malls he went into were special stores to impress him and other defectors, and that everyday Americans surely didn’t have anything like them.


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Belenko's MiG-25 landing in Japan was about the coolest thing I had yet been around to witness take place, at 14 years old. I read every article and caught every TV news program about it that I could find.


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Originally Posted by Stormtrooper
I read the book on this. Loved it



Welcome back Stormtrooper. Long time no see!


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

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