Ivanovich Belenko News Today

Viktor Belenko, who has died aged 76, was a senior lieutenant in the Soviet air force who made headlines in September 1976 when he landed an advanced supersonic MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor at a civilian airfield on the Japanese island of Hokkaido and was granted political asylum by the United States.

The plane’s canopy opened. A sturdy blond man emerged with a gun and fired two shots in the air to warn onlookers away.

Among the highest-profile figures to flee the Soviet Union, he brought with him a secret weapon and firsthand experience behind the Iron Curtain.