Belenko Viktor Ivanovich (Беленко Виктор Иванович), born 1947 February 15; living person. American engineer and lecturer of Russian origin. [b1]
Belenko born in Nalchick (Нальчик), USSR, in the family of workers. Graduated the general school in 1965 with the gold medal. After school, learned in the Omsk (Омск) medical institute; and also in the Air-club.
In the soviet army, became skillful pilot of ultrasonic jet fighters. Belenko used to serve at the Far East (Primorie) in very poor lodging conditions with his woman Lidmila and their child.
1976 September 6, Belenko was performing the conventional flight at the supersonic fighter jet MiG.
At very beginning of his flight, he made the unexpected manoeuvre and the observers thought that he had crash.
But at the low altitude, out of the range of the radars, Belenko used to run to the sea and headed to Hokkaido.
Another pilot (in this interpretation, Nikolai Sadovnikov) was sent after him to shut him down, with the more advanced jet fighter "sukhoi".
Belenko's MiG was successful to reach Hokkaido before the Sukhoi, but spent almost all the fuel going with the high speed. Belenko did not communicate the airport for the permission to land and had to make manoeuvre to avoid collision with the passinger airplane "Boeing", which just took-off. This affected MiG's course, and his approach was not good. However, Belenko did not have fuel for another landing approach, and still landed at high speed. The MiG got out of the airstrip, burned the tire at its front wheel and touched the airport's equipment, causing the light damage[b3,b4].
Although the USSR representatives did not bring any excuse for violation of the Japanese airspace, the MiG was returned to the USSR. Belenko did not want to return and applied for the asylum in the USA.
The soviet newspapers used to spread the official version of the Soviet Government (Id est, that of KGB and the Communist Party). According the that version, Belenko got lost and, being close to Japan and having no fuel to return back landed at the airport of Hakodate. Basing on this version, Sadovnikov tried to convince Bekenko to declare, that his arrival to Japan was not planned, and had to perform the emergency landing. Sadovnikov had insisted that Belenko should return to Russia. Belenko refused this; then Sadovnikov threat him, promising to find a way to kill him. Later, in the USSR, Belenko was was qualified as betrayer and sentenced to the death. The rumors were inspired that this sentence is realized by the political murder performed by the KGB agents; The inspiration of the car accident was mentioned.
Belenko got the American citizenship, visited many countries. He flew, gave lectures, wrote books and performed business. He declares that he feels himself as a free citizen of a free country.
Even in century 21, from time to time, the news about the tragic death of Belenko from the hands of bloody KGB agents appear. In particular 2009 September 1, David Avnukov (Давид Авнуков) had suggested the modern version of death of Belenko. According to that version, Belenko dead in 2008 in the way between Los Angeles and San Francisco in th inspiration of the car accident, organized, of course, by the KGB agents [b4]. Neither the date of the death of Belenko, nor the sources of information are specified. One may expect, that this news about murder of Belenko by the KGB terrorists is not last; and one may expect that Belenko will die many times , being mudrered by the KGB maifa once per every few years, in the way, similar to the periodic deaths of the black secretary of Geroge Washington, described by Mark Twain [b5]. Perhaps, for certain period of time, such political murders will be postponed, because a ten of illegal KGB agents were captured in the US in 2010 [b6]; as usually, Putin expects, the betrayers who helped to reveal the KGB agents, will not live long.
One indicates that Belenko participated in the analysis of the radio-conversation of the pilot of the Sukhoi jet with the airbase during the shouting down the Korean passenger Boeing in 1983, September 1. (Before such evidence, the USSR representatives used to negate that the passenger jet was shouted down by the rockets sent from the Soviet fighter.)
The escape of Belenko is discussed at many sites. One may expect, the humanity will forget about terrorists like Lenin and Stalin, but the famous flight by Belenko may remain in the History like the flight by Icarus or the first flight by the brothers Wright.
References:
b1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko
b2. http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Беленко,_Виктор_Иванович
b3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FiqazdxEXQ&NR=1 About Belenko
b4. http://www.newsland.ru/News/Detail/id/406074/ Давид Авнуков. Судьба летчика-перебежчика. 1 сентября 2009. 21:45. ...Расследование завершилось в нынешнем году - в автомобиле было искусственное повреждение, приведшее к потере управления... Что-то подобное спустя годы произошло с ещё одним 'перелётчиком', который перегнал в Турцию 'Су-29'. Единственной причиной гибели обоих пилотов могла быть только месть кагэбистов.(In Russian. About successive murdering of soviet pilots, escaped into civilized countries, by the KGB agents)
b5. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/General_Washington%27s_Negro_Body-servant Mark Twain. General Washington's Negro Body-servant
b6. http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Russia-Dismisses-US-Claims-in-Alleged-Spy-Ring-Case-97379589.html Gabe Joselow. Russia Says US Spy Allegations 'Groundless'. 19 June 2010. Russia's Foreign Ministry says allegations of a Russian spy ring in the United States are "groundless" and "unseemly." Meanwhile, an 11th spy suspect, who had been at large, was arrested in Cyprus on Tuesday. The Canadian man was arrested in Nicosia at the request of Interpol as he tried to board a flight for Budapest.
Sadovnikov Nikolai Feodorovich (Садовников Николай Фёдорович), born 1946 October 25, dead 1994 July 22,
Soviet military pilot, used to fly the Sukhoi supersonic jet [c1,c2,c3].
Sadovnikov had good relations with higher-rank officers and grown fast in his rank; got several awards.
Septemner 6, 1976 was ordered to shut down another soviet pilot, Victor Belenko, who flew out on the jet fighter MiG-25 to Hokkaido. Sadovnikov flew the more advanced jet "Sukhoi", but was not successful to hit the MiG. Instead, Sadovnkov overspent the fuel and could not return back to the air-base, ejected over the sea, sank the Sukhoi, and had been rescued by the Soviet troops.
Then Sadovnokov came to Japan as representative to the Russian Embassy there to meet Victor Belenko [c4]: After the authorities of the USSR understood the escape of Belenko could not be hidden from the public the Russian Foreign Ministry informed that the senior lieutenant lost his way and landed in Japan where he was injected drugs by force. The treasoner had a chance to return to his Motherland even after he applied for the political asylum in the USA. After the demand of the USSR the meeting Belenko with Soviet officials was arranged. Upon entering the room the employee of the Soviet Embassy in Japan, named Sadovnikov, said: "The Soviet government knows that you lost the way, were forced to land and injected drugs. I have come here to help you return home to your beloved wife and son!" Belenko interrupted him: "Stop carrying on propoganda to me. I arrived in Japan voluntarily". And then the "diplomat" who was a KGB officer publicly threatened the hijacker: "Traitor! We will find you anyway wherever you will be!" The story about the death of Belenko in a car crash could be invented by KGB to prevent other people from following the hijacker footsteps.
Sadovnikov used to fight in the Afghan war, had awards for the successful operations.
In 1994, soon after the desintegration of the USSR, Sadovnikov dead.
He is buried at the village Ostrovtsy (Островцы) of the Ramensky prefecture of the Moscow area. The memorial plate is installed at the home where he used to live his last years [c6]
Ссылки
c1. http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=862 Садовников Николай Фёдорович 25.10.1946-22.7.1994, Герой Советского Союза.(in Russian)
c2. http://www.testpilot.ru/review/isplii/pilot/70/sadovnikov.htm В.П.Васин, А.А.Симонов. 'Испытатели ЛИИ'. САДОВНИКОВ Николай Фёдорович 1946-1994.(In Russian)
c3. http://sukhoi.org/eng/planes/military/su33/history/ The Design Bureau Work started to develop a Su-27-based naval fighter in 1971. ... On 30th August 1984, N.F. Sadovnikov used T10-25 for the first time to perform a "navalised" landing, and on 3rd September 1984, the first takeoff from the new ski-jump... c4. http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/363/11227_pilot.html Dmitry Korobeinikov. On September 6, 1976 news agencies reported sensational news: a pilot of the newest Russian fighter plane MiG-25 landed on Japanese island Khokkaido and asked for political asylum in the USA. 07.11.2003. After the authorities of the USSR understood the escape of Belenko could not be hidden from the public the Russian Foreign Ministry informed that the senior lieutenant lost his way and landed in Japan where he was injected drugs by force. The treasoner had a chance to return to his Motherland even after he applied for the political asylum in the USA. After the demand of the USSR the meeting Belenko with Soviet officials was arranged. Upon entering the room the employee of the Soviet Embassy in Japan, named Sadovnikov, said: "The Soviet government knows that you lost the way, were forced to land and injected drugs. I have come here to help you return home to your beloved wife and son!" Belenko interrupted him: "Stop carrying on propoganda to me. I arrived in Japan voluntarily". And then the "diplomat" who was a KGB officer publicly threatened the hijacker: "Traitor! We will find you anyway wherever you will be!" The story about the death of Belenko in a car crash could be invented by KGB to prevent other people from following the hijacker footsteps.
c5. http://www.milavia.net/aircraft/su-15/ Sukhoi Su-15 Flagon
c6. http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?id=3192 Мемориальная доска в Жуковском. Установлена в городе Жуковский Московской области (улица Дзержинского, дом 6/1) на доме, в котором в 1983-1994 годах жил Н.Ф.Садовников. Фото А.А.Симонова, 3.11.2008. (In Russian)