Computer rendering showing two F-15s of the 32nd TFS chasing a derelict MiG-23 over West Germany |
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| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 4 July 1989 |
| Type | Crew bail-out, fuel exhaustion |
| Site | Kortrijk, Belgium |
| Crew | 1 |
| Fatalities | 1 (on ground) |
| Survivors | 1 (crew) |
| Aircraft type | Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 |
| Flight origin | Kołobrzeg, Poland |
The 1989 Belgian MiG-23 crash involved the crash of an unmanned Soviet MiG-23M "Flogger-B" into a house in Kortrijk, Belgium, on 4 July 1989, killing an 18-year-old man.
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The incident started as a routine training flight. Colonel Nicolai Skuridin, the pilot, departed Soviet occupied Bagicz Airbase near Kołobrzeg, 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 on autopilot in a westerly direction.[1][2]
The unmanned aircraft left Polish airspace, crossing into the airspace of East Germany and then West Germany, where it was intercepted by a pair of U.S. Air Force F-15s of the 32nd TFS, Soesterberg, the Netherlands. [3] As the MiG-23 crossed into Dutch airspace the F15 pilots reported the plane having no pilot "There is definitely no pilot in the plane" and continued the intercept into Belgian airspace. The escorting F-15's were instructed to down the plane over the North Sea. As the Mig ran out of fuel (engine stopped), it started a slow turn to the south. The French Air Force put armed Mirage fighters on readiness in case the MiG approached French territory. However, after flying over 560 miles the Mig crashed into a house, killing a Belgian teenager.[1]
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]
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