That Time Two U.S. F-15s Intercepted a Pilotless Russian MiG-23

Dario Leone

History, Europe

Here's What happened.

On Jul. 4, 1989, Captains J. D. “JD” Martin and Bill “Turf” Murphy checked in at the temporary Zulu facility’s at Soesterberg to assume the duties of ALPHA KILO ZERO ONE and ZERO was TWO. They were looking forward to a quiet day (no Tango scrambles) and as the 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) Zulu log recounts, “a good view of the the fireworks.” “A good view of the fireworks” they got, “a quiet and day” they did not.

As told by Steve Davies and Doug Dildy in their book F-15 Eagle Engaged, while most of the men, women and children associated with the 32nd TFS gathered at the “infield” between Soesterberg’s runway and the “Wolfhounds”‘ squadron area to enjoy carnival rides, hot dogs and Heinekens, and a baseball game between Ops (the pilots) and Maintenance (the maintainers), some 500nm to the east a Soviet MiG-23M “Flogger-B” was lifting off from Runway 23 at Kolobzreg, near Gdansk, Poland, its wings out at the 18.5-degree take-off setting and the Tumansky R-29-300 turbojet roaring in full afterburner. At the controls was Colonel Nikolai Skurigin, taking off for an intercept training mission over the Baltic Sea. His “Flogger” was loaded only with 200 rounds of 23mm ammunition and full fuel tanks. Suddenly, just after raising the landing gear, at only 130-150m (about 400ft) above the ground the afterburner abruptly quit and, in his mirrors, Skurigin noticed smoke trailing is aircraft. The MiG settled into a descent and, convinced that he had an engine failure, the Russian colonel quickly ejected from his disabled aircraft.