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As Belenko approached Japanese airspace near Sapporo, the site of the 1972 Winter Olympics, his pursuers suddenly turned back, probably recalled to their base by radio command. Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces, spotting the intruder on radar, warned him (in Russian) by radio that he would soon violate Japanese airspace. When Belenko neither responded nor changed course, the Japanese scrambled two Phantoms to intercept the plane. But find him they could not. Belenko managed for 24 minutes to elude the Phantoms, probably by the simple expedient of flying again at low altitudes, below the sweep of the Air Self-Defense Forces' radar.
Then, suddenly appearing over Hakodate, Belenko circled twice and touched down, two drag chutes popping from the MIG's tail for braking. Because of his tire blowout, Belenko was apparently unable to use the wheel brakes, and the MIG overran the runway, knocking down two short navigational antennas before coming to a stop.
Most defectors, having taken the emotion-wrenching step of leaving their homeland, are confused or, as one intelligence expert puts it, "kooky," when they arrive at their destinations. Not Belenko. After getting out of the plane and firing the. warning shot, he willingly surrendered to Japanese police, who placed him in custody for having violated Japanese immigration procedures and for possession of illegal weapons. Those charges were only legal ruses to keep Lieut. Belenko safely in Japanese hands.
Soviet embassy officials in Tokyo immediately demanded to have an interview with Belenko, who the Soviets insisted had made an emergency landing in Japan and now was being kept prisoner against his will. The Soviets charged that Japan was acting at the instigation of "a third country" and warned that a refusal to meet their request could lead to repercussions. The Japanese coolly replied that the plane was being held as evidence in the legal proceeding against Belenko and might have to be dismantled, part by part, to determine the facts of the case. After at least five separate Soviet diplomatic protests, Belenko finally agreed to meet with a Russian embassy official. But the meeting, held shortly before his Tokyo departure, was short. Belenko, who obviously was less than impressed by the arguments of the Communist official, waved merrily to newsmen as he climbed into an auto after the confrontation.
Search for Secrets. Belenko's delight was shared by members of an elite group of U.S. Air Force technicians, known as the Foreign Technology Division. The division normally must draw its conclusions about the capability of foreign military aircraft by such means as electronic eavesdropping and reports and pictures from agents. Now they have the chance to kick the tires and feel the rivets of a plane about which they had only fragmentary information.
After news came of the lieutenant's defection, the division quickly mustered a squad and flew it to Japan to study the MIG-25 and appraise its possibilities. For example, the squad will determine what the MIG-25 pilot can or cannot see from the cockpit. (In their first examination of a MIG-21, captured by Israel during the 1973 war, Air Force experts discovered that the pilot had limited rear vision and could not see anything directly above, a vital tip for an opponent in a dogfight.)