Alexander Zuyev

Alexander Zuyev (1961 - June 10, 2001) was a captain of the former-Soviet Air Defense Force (VVS) who piloted his Mikoyan MiG-29 to Trabzon, Turkey on May 20, 1989.

According to Soviet/Russian record, Zuyev was a good pilot and was thus selected as a test pilot and the aircraft he had flown was not limited to fixed-wing aircraft: he had also flown rotary aircraft such as Mil Mi-24. Zuyev was married to the daughter of the chief-of-staff of the air division at age of 25, and was selected for special advanced training due to his excellent performance, but he failed to complete the training. Zuyev was bitter about his rejection and planned to defect when his marriage was also in trouble.

The day before his defection, he crushed a large amount of sleeping pills and mixed the powder into a large cake, and invited everyone in his unit to celebrate because his wife was pregnant with a boy. Zuyev personally handed everyone a piece of cake, with the exception of 4 people: the squadron commander who was preparing the flight plan for the next day, two mechanics on guard duty, and another person was out of town on assignment.

When everyone was asleep, Zuyev made his move by first cutting off the telephone lines, and then he walked to the mechanic who was on guard and told him that his replacement could not be here immediately, and he would relieve him temporarily until the replacement came. Already impatient and upset for his replacement being late, the guard was only too happy to hand his assault rifle to Zuyev and walked away. As Zuyev approached one of the only two Mikoyan MiG-29 that were ready to fly, the replacement finally came. Observing Zuyev's odd behavior, the replacement guard tried to stop him, but Zuyev immediately opened fire, sending him dodging for cover. Taking advantage of the confusion, Zuyev quickly climbed into the cockpit and took off. The last thing Zuyev saw before the airport vanished from his sight was that the only remaining combat ready Mikoyan MiG-29 was just starting to approach the runway, the squadron commander's futile attempt to stop him (Of course, Zuyev could not see the squadron commander's face in the cockpit, but he was the only pilot left when everybody else was soundly asleep).

The first thing he said after stepping out of the cockpit was that: "I'll be an American!", and indeed, he was allowed to immigrate to the United States and settled in San Diego, California, where he opened a consulting firm. Capt. Zuyev also wrote a book titled: "Fulcrum: A Top Gun Pilot's Escape from the Soviet Empire" (ISBN 0-446-51648). Originally Zuyev faced criminal charges such as hijacking in Turkish court, but once it was declared that he held dissident political views in the former Soviet Union, all charges were dismissed.

On June 10, 2001, Alexander Zuyev was killed along with the famous aviator Mr. Jerry 'Mike' Warren in a crash in Seattle, Washington when their Yakovlev Yak-52 entered and failed to recover from an accelerated stall.

ee also

*Viktor Belenko
*List of Cold War pilot defections