Departures of note

On September 6, 1976, Viktor Belenko, a lieutenant in the Soviet Air Defence Forces, flew his MiG-25 Foxbat jet interceptor from his base in Chuguyevka, Primorsky Krai, to Hakodate Airport in Hokkaido, Japan, successfully defecting to the West. The plane's arrival was a windfall for Western military planners, who had never before examined the aircraft up close. George H. W. Bush, then Director of Central Intelligence, called the opportunity an 'intelligence bonanza.' The Japanese government initially allowed the United States to conduct ground tests of the radar and engines, then permitted a full dismantling for extensive examination. Experts determined the MiG-25 was an interceptor, not a fighter-bomber, a reassurance for Japanese defense planners. The plane was later returned to the Soviet Union in crates, with Japan billing the Soviets $40,000 for crating and airfield damage; the Soviets, in turn, attempted to charge Japan $10 million for 20 missing parts, including film of the flight. Neither bill is known to have been paid.

Belenko was born on February 15, 1947, in Nalchik, in the Russian SFSR. He joined the Soviet Air Defence Forces in 1967 and served with the 513th Fighter Regiment, 11th Air Army. At the time of his defection, he was married to Lyudmila Petrovna, with whom he had a son, Dmitry, born in January 1973. He was in the midst of a marital crisis; his wife, from a wealthy family, disliked being a military wife and had told him she intended to file for divorce and move with their son to her parents' home in Magadan. Belenko brought with him the pilot's manual for the MiG-25, expecting to assist U.S. pilots in evaluating and testing the aircraft. He was granted asylum by President Gerald Ford, and the U.S. government debriefed him for five months, then employed him as a consultant for several years.

Belenko started a new life in the United States, taking the surname Schmidt to avoid attention and reprisal from the Soviet Union. He moved often, mostly living in small towns across the Midwest, and worked as a consultant to aerospace companies and government agencies. In 1980, the U.S. Congress enacted a private law granting him citizenship, signed by President Jimmy Carter on October 14, 1980. He married Coral Garaas, a music teacher from North Dakota, and they had two sons before divorcing. The Soviet Union repeatedly spread false stories about his death, return, or arrest, which he denied. He co-wrote a 1980 autobiography, MiG Pilot: The Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko, with Reader's Digest writer John Barron, confirming he had a wife and son in the USSR. He almost never gave interviews, fearing for his life, but in a 2000 bar interview he said he was happy in the United States, praising Americans' tolerance for differing opinions. He died in a nursing home in Red Bud, Illinois, on September 24, 2023, at age 76, survived by two sons and four grandchildren, as well as a son from his previous marriage. There was no memorial service.