Viktor Ivanovich Belenko (Russian: Виктор Иванович Беленко, born 15 February 1947) is an American aerospace engineer and former Soviet pilot who defected to the West while flying his MiG-25 jet fighter (NATO reporting name: "Foxbat") and landed in Hakodate, Japan. George H. W. Bush, the Director of Central Intelligence at the time, called the opportunity to examine the plane up close an "intelligence bonanza" for the West. Belenko later became a U.S. aerospace engineer.