This rather glaring navigation error was not quite as egregious as you might think. These were the days before GPS and advanced navigation aids. I’ve seen the cockpit of a MiG-21, and it is incredibly cramped. It’s actually expecting a lot for a pilot flying at 600 knots through broken weather in a relatively unfamiliar airplane to navigate precisely with little more than a folded-up paper map. Regardless, Zinoviev touched down in the first third of the long runway and deployed his drogue chute to slow the powerful fighter plane. As he completed his landing roll, he noticed that something was amiss.
The aircraft lining the runway were predominantly French. Nearby, there were American airplanes as well, sporting their own distinctive markings. Cpt. Fyodor Zinoviev was now well and truly doomed.
The unexpected arrival of a spanking new MiG-21PFM at an active NATO airbase was cause for celebration. Allied airmen flocked to the runway both in vehicles and on foot. Before Zinoviev could do much about it, French troops had pulled a fire truck across his path, blocking the rest of the runway.
Among a variety of advanced capabilities, the new MiG-21PFM was designed for operations off of austere airfields. Thinking quickly, Cpt. Zinoviev jettisoned his drogue chute and spun the plane around in a quick 180-degree turn. He then firewalled the throttle, lit his afterburner and accelerated back in the wrong direction along what little runway he had available behind him. Zinoviev got the heavy plane airborne just as he ran out of concrete.
Once off the ground and clear, Zinoviev formed up with his buddies and proceeded to his appropriate destination. Upon landing, he supposedly kicked off his flight gear and reported to a nearby watering hole to get sloppy drunk. He didn’t bother to report his brief sojourn on NATO territory to his boss.
You can’t hide a mistake of that magnitude. Eventually, the details came out. When confronted by his division commander, the reception was mixed. Translated from the original Russian, his boss said, “For landing in Tegel, you’re a moron. For making it out successfully, you did good.”
The fact that Zinoviev had an actual kill against a NATO warplane counted to his credit, as did his quick-thinking reversal on the enemy runway. All in all, his commander figured everything evened itself out. Zinoviev went on to a successful career in the Red Air Force. Regardless, he was one of the few Cold War-era Soviet combat pilots who could truthfully say he had actually visited a NATO airbase, albeit only very briefly.
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