The rogue Soviet pilot story that still haunts jet makers

The British F-35 has been stuck on Indian soil for over 10 days—unguarded in the open.

Transcript

00:00The British F-35 is still stranded on Indian soil under CISF's watch.

00:04It is this 1976 incident when a pilot went rogue

00:06that still haunts manufacturers and countries into never letting their jets out of sight.

00:10When a Soviet pilot called Victor Belenko flew an aircraft called the MiG-25,

00:16it could fly nearly three times the speed of sound.

00:19Victor Belenko defected with his jet.

00:21He landed in Hakodate, Japan.

00:23He surrendered the aircraft.

00:24All the Western technicians, manufacturers, engineers,

00:27they literally, the military guys, they came and they literally took that aircraft apart,

00:32nuts and bolts, and they studied it for weeks to see what was it that made this aircraft go so fast.

00:39And they drew certain conclusions from that.

00:42So they returned the aircraft in about 20 boxes to the Soviet Union.

00:46So it's a one-of-a-kind case.

00:49Of course, there's no fears that India will do the same

00:51because the UK and the US, we are strategic partners.

00:55We don't have any such thing, but still they would want their aircraft to be,

00:59they don't want India to get too close a look at the aircraft and its parameters.