The Blue Bird

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The Blue Bird legend

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3405913,00.html

It was a bold Mossad operation that changed the balance of power in the region: in 1966, an Iraqi fighter pilot flew a Mig-21 jet to Israel, enabling Israel and the US to study and test the Russian-made aircraft for the first time. New film reveals almost all details related to affair
Reuven Weiss

On the morning of Tuesday, August 16, 1966, the impossible happened. A Mig-21 jet plane, the flagship of Soviet industry and the most advanced aircraft in use by the Arab armies at the time, landed at the Israel Air Force base in Hatzor.

For the West, this was a dream come true. The Mig-21 was considered the number one fighter plane during the Cold War, and the United States had no clue as to how it was built, what its weaknesses were and what weapons should be developed against it.

Captain Munir Redfa, the Iraqi fighter pilot who flew the jet to Israel, said that he decided to defect to the West because of the remorse and guilt he felt over attacking Kurdish villages with napalm bombs.

But Redfa's defection was not spontaneous, but rather the result of a comprehensive and bold Mossad-initiated operation, which was named "The Blue Bird