1989 Belgian MiG-23 crash
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The 1989 Belgian MiG-23 crash involved the crash of an unmanned Soviet MiG-23 into a house in Kortrijk, Belgium, on July 4, 1989, killing an 18-year-old man.
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[edit] Overview
The incident started as a routine training flight. Colonel Skurigin, the pilot, departed the Soviet air base near Kolobrzeg, Poland. During takeoff, the afterburner failed and the engine began losing power. At an altitude of 150 meters and descending, the pilot assumed he had a complete engine failure and ejected without incident. However, the engine had not failed completely, and the aircraft remained airborne, flying in a westerly direction, flying on autopilot.[1][2]
The now-unmanned aircraft crossed into the airspace of East Germany and then West Germany, where it was intercepted by a pair of U.S. Air Force F-15s. As the MiG-23 crossed into Dutch airspace, the F-15s broke off their escort. The French put armed Mirage fighters on readiness in case the MiG approached French territory. However, after flying over 560 miles and crossing into Belgium, the MiG ran out of fuel and crashed into a house, killing an 18-year-old man inside.[1]
[edit] Political response
The Belgian government made formal protest to the Soviet Union regarding the lack of notification as to the danger the aircraft posed to the civilian population. Belgian Foreign Minister Mark Eyskens expressed concern that "from the time the MiG-23 was first picked up on NATO radar to the time it crashed more than an hour later, no word of warning came from the Soviet side," and that "there was also a notable slowness on the part of the Soviets in disclosing whether the jet was carrying nuclear or toxic weapons."[2]
