Search Continues for Downed Su-27 Pilot

This intelligence report, dated October 23, 1992, details the ongoing search for a Russian military pilot, Captain 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 the Chukotka region 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 had experienced a failure in the regulators of both engines, though the pilot had been advised that flight was still possible under those conditions. The search, which had been ongoing for three months at the time of the report, yielded no results. The document notes that several theories regarding the disappearance have been proposed, including an accident, pilot loss of consciousness, an escape abroad, or abduction by a UFO. However, the report explicitly states that none of these theories have been confirmed. Furthermore, investigations by foreign and military intelligence, as well as the diplomatic corps, have found no trace of the aircraft in Japan, the United States, or South Korea. The report concludes by noting that this is the second instance of a military pilot mysteriously disappearing from this specific air regiment.