Search Continues for Downed Su-27 Pilot

This intelligence report, dated October 23, 1992, details the ongoing search for a Russian military pilot, Vladimir Molokanov, who disappeared on July 24, 1992. Molokanov was piloting a Su-27 aircraft and was returning from anti-aircraft and missile training in Chukotka when contact was lost near the Shantarskiye Islands off the Okhotsk Sea coast. According to Aleksandr Nosov, the head of the search team, the aircraft experienced a failure in the regulators of both engines, though the pilot was advised that flight was still possible. Despite extensive search efforts lasting three months, no trace of the pilot or the aircraft has been discovered. The report notes that foreign and military intelligence, as well as the diplomatic corps, have investigated the possibility of the pilot escaping abroad, but no evidence has been found in Japan, the United States, or South Korea. The report explicitly mentions that various theories regarding the disappearance have been proposed, including an accident, pilot incapacitation, defection, or abduction by a UFO, though none have been confirmed. This incident is noted as the second time a military pilot has mysteriously disappeared from this specific air regiment.