Colonel Nikolai Skuridin has just back to service after vacation. On the morning of 4th July, he already had a flight at training aircraft, the next step was to make a flight in fully armed MiG-23M jet fighter. Skuridin was not rookie pilot - he had 1700 flight hours and he was 1st class pilot according to the Soviet Air Force class system.
He took off. As soon as he did, he noticed afterburner had spontaneously turned off, as well as that throttles catastrophically dropped. He told the dispatcher he is about to eject, dispatch confirmed, so colonel left the jet.
Both jet pilot and spectators expected jet to crash near the airfield, but it never did. Instead, engine went back to normal, so did the jet itself due to autopilot system. Jet started to climb, flying westward. As MiG-23’s IFF kept tone back, jet passed both Poland and Eastern Germany unnoticed.
