Viktor Belenko, Who Defected to the West in a Jet Fighter, Dies at 76

On a transparent late summer season day in 1976, a airplane popped up on the radar simply off the coast of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It had been flying a mere 100 toes off the water, low sufficient to keep away from detection. Now, instantly, it climbed as much as 20,000 toes. Clearly, the pilot needed to be seen.

The plane flew towards the southwestern port metropolis of Hakodate. It circled the airport twice, then ready to land. The airplane, identifiable now as a Soviet fighter jet, practically collided with a 727 airliner because it touched down. It plowed previous the top of the tarmac, blew out its entrance wheel and got here to a cease not removed from a busy freeway.

As floor crews rushed towards it, the airplane’s cover opened. A sturdy blond man emerged with a gun and fired two photographs within the air to warn onlookers away. When the authorities arrived, he climbed down to fulfill them.

His title was Lt. Viktor Belenko. He was there to defect, he mentioned, alongside together with his jet, a supersonic interceptor known as a MiG-25. The airplane had stoked concern amongst Western militaries for years. Now, due to Lieutenant Belenko, that they had a pristine specimen to look at. George Bush, then the director of the Central Intelligence Company, known as the incident an “intelligence bonanza.”

Lieutenant Belenko, who went on to settle in america, died on Sept. 24 at a senior residing heart close to Rosebud, a small city in Southern Illinois. He was 76. His son Paul Schmidt mentioned his demise, which was not extensively reported on the time, got here after a short sickness.

Viktor Belenko was the flower of Communist youth. Born into proletarian poverty, he had labored himself up by means of the profession and celebration ranks to develop into a member of the nation’s elite Air Protection Forces, a separate department from the Soviet Air Drive that was charged with defending the motherland from assault.

However alongside the best way he grew to become disillusioned with the Soviet system. He had been promised materials rewards for his onerous work; as an alternative, regardless of his elite standing, he felt he was being handled like an expendable cog in a creaking conflict machine.

He stored his doubts to himself — a lot in order that within the early Seventies he acquired the choicest of assignments: to coach on the MiG-25, one of many Soviets’ latest weapons.

Via the Fifties and ’60s, america and the Soviet Union had fought a high-altitude arms race, constructing greater, sooner bombers and reconnaissance plane. America had the higher hand, given the expanse of territory the Soviets needed to defend.

Then, within the early Seventies, American intelligence companies and their allies detected a brand new plane within the Soviet arsenal: an unlimited fighter, able to flying miles above the earth, a number of instances sooner than sound.

The airplane, which the North Atlantic Treaty Group known as the MiG-25 “Foxbat,” had one thing else: extensive wings, suggesting that it was additionally extremely maneuverable. This was the weapon the West had lengthy feared, believing it was able to taking down supersonic bombers and reconnaissance jets that had, till then, flown by means of Soviet airspace with impunity.

Now Lieutenant Belenko was going to offer them one as a present.

He had plotted his escape for months, ready till he and his squadron went on an unarmed coaching mission over the Sea of Japan, placing him near freedom and rendering his colleagues unable to cease him.

After he landed, Japanese officers handed Lieutenant Belenko and his airplane to the People. The airplane was dissected and analyzed earlier than being returned, in items, to the Soviets, just a few weeks later. Lieutenant Belenko acquired asylum, then flew to america to be interviewed.

The MiG-25 turned out to be a paper eagle. Its big wingspan was not for maneuverability however merely to elevate the airplane and its 15 tons of gasoline off the bottom. It couldn’t even do its job: Although it flew quick, it was no match for the American plane it was meant to take down.

Of nice worth, although, was what Lieutenant Belenko advised the People about circumstances and morale inside the Soviet armed forces.

American officers had lengthy believed that Soviet army personnel have been chiseled supermen. Lieutenant Belenko revealed that they have been typically half-starved and overwhelmed down, pressured into cramped residing areas and topic to sadistic punishment on the tiniest infraction.

Throughout a go to to a U.S. plane service, he was astonished that sailors have been allowed limitless quantities of meals, without charge. He as soon as purchased a can of cat meals at a grocery retailer, not realizing it was for pets; when somebody identified his error, he shrugged and mentioned it nonetheless tasted higher than the meals bought for human consumption within the Soviet Union.

And he was astounded to be taught concerning the inadequacies of his plane’s internal workings, which, regardless of his elite standing, he had by no means been allowed to see.

“If my regiment may see 5 minutes of what I noticed as we speak,” he advised a companion, “there can be a revolution.”

Viktor Ivanovich Belenko was born on Feb. 15, 1947, in Nalchik, a Russian metropolis within the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains.

His father labored in a manufacturing facility, his mom on a farm. Even by Soviet requirements, that they had little or no cash. However Viktor utilized himself to his research and to his Communist Celebration actions, changing into a member of the Younger Pioneers, a youth group that educated future celebration members.

He had little thought about life in America, besides that it needed to be higher than what he encountered within the Soviet Union.

“I’ve been eager for freedom in america,” the Japanese police quoted him saying. “Life within the Soviet Union has not modified from that current within the days of Czarist russia, the place there had been no freedom.”

Congress handed an act in 1980 to offer Mr. Belenko citizenship. Keen to flee consideration, he took the surname Schmidt and moved round typically, principally residing in small cities throughout the Midwest. He labored as a marketing consultant to aerospace corporations and authorities companies.

His marriage to Coral Garaas resulted in divorce. Alongside together with his son Paul Schmidt, Mr. Belenko is survived by one other son, Tom Schmidt, and 4 grandchildren. Although some stories mentioned he had left a spouse and baby behind within the Soviet Union, Mr. Belenko advised his son that this was unfaithful and the results of Soviet propaganda.

After the Chilly Warfare ended, he started to make occasional appearances at air exhibits and returned to calling himself Viktor Belenko. However he by no means sought to capitalize on his second of worldwide fame.

“He lived essentially the most personal life,” his son Paul mentioned. “He flew underneath the radar, actually and figuratively.”