Viktor Belenko, the former Soviet Air Defence Forces pilot who defected to the West in 1976 in a MiG-25 high-speed interceptor, has passed away on Sept. 24.
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CIA photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The New York Times quoted Belenko’s son on November 20 as saying that his father had died after a brief, unspecified illness in a nursing home in Rosebud, Illinois.
On Sept. 6, 1976, then Lt. Belenko flew his MiG-25P fighter to Hakodate Airport in Hokkaido Prefecture of Japan. After circling Hakodate airport three times, Belenko landed at the airport with around 30 seconds of fuel remaining.
His defection allow the U.S. military and the CIA to extensively examine the MiG-25. First at Hakodate and later at Hyakuri air force base.
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