“Russian Pilot Describes Defection to Ukraine, Urges Others to Follow,” reports the Wall Street Journal about a Russian chopper pilot who defected to Ukraine in his Mi-8. He received a $500,000 reward.
The article refers to an Israeli program to persuade an Arab pilot to defect with his MiG. But we think the first such program was Operation Moolah, which offered communist pilots $100,000 to defect with their MiG-15s during the Korean War. One pilot did defect with such a MiG shortly after the war, but reports indicate he was actually unaware of the reward. See a good Wikipedia report on the program and defection here.
For a related case, see our DMZ War report, with great photos, “North Korean MiG on the Beach,” a first-hand account of US soldiers responding to a North Korean MiG that landed on the beach in South Korea’s Gangwon Province in 1970. The “defection” of KPAF/North Korean Air Force Major Pak Sun-kok (or “Soon-kuk”) was celebrated, although there are reports he crash landed due to a mishap, rather than deliberately defecting. Though to be sure, defectors from North Korea might prefer to characterize their actions as an accident rather than a blow against Pyongyang, due to fear about the safety of their families and fellow servicemen left behind. Pak became a South Korean Air Force pilot.
