A staff car took Boshnikoff to the flight line where he went to the pilot’s ready room and donned a flight suit. His pilot was already in his aircraft inside the alert hangar with the front and rear hangar doors open, the engines running and the boarding ladder hung on the side at the second seat position. The wingman’s plane was next to him with his engines running also. The crew chief was waiting at the foot of the ladder to climb up after Boshnikoff to assist him with getting his gear hooked up. The big Mikoyan Mig-25 code named Foxbat by NATO was imposing as it sat with the engines idling. Even at idle, the engines made a throaty rumbling that shook everything around it. It was powered by two Turmansky R-266 axial turbojet engines with an output of 27,115 pounds of thrust each with water and methanol injection. It could fly at a maximum speed of 2,111 m.p.h. (Mach 3.2). The aircraft carried a modified GP-9 gun pod with a 23-mm cannon holding about 300 rounds. They were not carrying missiles because of the large auxiliary tanks that would give them greater range and they did not intend to shoot down the C-130 anyway. They just wanted to force it down inside Soviet air space. Boshnikoff made his way to the aircraft as quickly as he could, half limping and half running. Captain Tupolevski greeted Boshnikoff over the intercom when Boshnikoff was strapped in, the ladder was removed and the crew chief waived them out of the hangar. Their wingman had moved out onto the ramp waiting for them to lead the way to the active runway. As the pilot closed the canopy he said, “Welcome aboard, Major Boshnikoff. I understand you have flown in fighter aircraft before.”
“Yes, I have Captain Tupolevski, but not one like this. I flew in the Mig-19 back in the late 1960’s.”
“You will then appreciate the difference, Major. We can fly twice as fast as the Mig-19.”
“Good, we have a lot of ground to cover. Let’s get moving Captain. That C-130 could be just about anywhere by now. I want to go north from here.”
“But, Major, that is the opposite direction from where they would go to get home.”
“Exactly, Captain. That is why we will search in that direction first.”
The big Mig-25 taxied out to the active runway with the wingman close behind. They lined up staggered on the runway and took off in afterburner instead of full military power as was normally done. They would waste no time getting airborne. The two-seat E-model version had a five and one half-hour flying time without the missiles and they wanted all the airtime they could get. Flying due north would put them right behind the C-130, although Boshnikoff did not know that. He was sure they went north, but would have to rely on radar to guide them to the C-130. They would be over the plains in about 20 minutes.
5:30 a.m. Thursday morning, September 20, 1984, 15 minutes from entering Finland-
Stillwell clicked the intercom, “Mary I want you and Vicky to go back in the cargo compartment and tie the pilot and copilot with as much rope and cargo strapping as you can find. Cut it in pieces with my pocketknife and make as many knots out of the ends as possible. I want it to take a long time for their engineer to untie them. I plan to open the cargo ramp in the rear of the aircraft and toss out all of the extra chutes so one or more of them can’t come after us. We will have the only chutes left. I’m going to take this baby up to 10,000 feet and level it off and head it south down the Baltic Sea. We’ll bail out over the island of Gotska Sandon after I’ve set the autopilot. I’ll untie the engineer after I do that. He’ll have to untie one of the pilots and by the time he does, they’ll be picked up on radar by Sweden and probably Russia. It will be a mad scramble to see who get to the unidentified aircraft first. I’ll smash the radios before leaving the cockpit so they can’t communicate until they’re on the ground. That should give us enough time to get picked up before they figure out where we’ve bailed out.”
Captain Tupolevski double-clicked the intercom and said, Major Boshnikoff, we have flown the entire length of the plain and have spotted nothing either by sight or on radar. I suggest we turn north toward the Barents Sea. They may be trying to exit that way and head east toward Finland, Norway or Sweden.”
“Good thinking, Captain. Let’s get moving, we are running out of time.” They banked to the right and headed toward the Barents Sea.
Stillwell turned the C-130 toward the southern coast of Finland. This section of the country was covered with hundreds of islands between the mountains and it was easier to snake the big aircraft between the sparsely populated towns. He stayed to the east of Mikkeli and headed due south. This would take him between five airports in a very small area, four to the west and one to the east at Lappeenranta. He would exit the landmass to the east of Helsinki and be precariously close to the Russian boarder again.
Mary watched for signs of pursuing aircraft on the radar and out the windows to the starboard side while Vicky watched the port side behind Stillwell. As soon as they cleared land, Stillwell dropped the big aircraft right down to the water. He was now flying no more than ten feet off the surface. The compression caused by the huge aircraft churned up spray, but it kept them off the radar. Stillwell had to climb to 150 feet to bank hard to the right to head out of the Gulf of Finland and hug the coastline in Finish waters and out of Russian waters. He did not want to get picked up by the powerful radar at Tallin. Once he was out into the open Baltic Sea he increased his altitude to 200 feet and headed for Stockholm.
Mary said, “Kurt, I’ve put all of the chutes at the end of the cargo ramp like you said and the pilot and copilot are bound up like mummies. The engineer kept trying to talk to us, but we ignored him and said nothing.”
“You did good, Mary. I’m going to bank south in a minute and head for the island of Gotska Sandon. As soon as I make the turn, I’m going to increase the altitude to 10,000 feet and set the autopilot. I want you and Vicky to wait at the cargo ramp for me after