Viktor Belenko: The Soviet Pilot Defector Who Stole A MiG-25 And Flew It To Japan

Almost five decades ago, on September 6, 1976, Soviet Air Defense Forces pilot Lieutenant Viktor Belenko defected to the West by flying his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25P “Foxbat” aircraft to Japan. During the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Western countries encouraged Soviet pilots to fly to non-Soviet-aligned countries and claim political asylum.