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Soviet pilot 'found' in Afghanistan after 30 years RT https://www.rt.com/news/428555-soviet-pilot-missing-afghanistan/ Published: 2 Jun, 2018

A Soviet pilot who went missing in Afghanistan in the 1980s has reportedly been found and may soon return home. His daughter, who never knew her dad, says her mom was hoping for a miracle for 30 years and never married again.

News that a Soviet military pilot, who went missing after his plane was shot down in Afghanistan, is still alive made headlines in Russia on Friday. The chief of the Russian Paratrooper Union, Valery Vostrotin, refrained from naming the aviator for ethical reasons.

The Russian Embassy in Kabul confirmed to RT Russian that a person calling himself a former Soviet pilot was discovered, but said his identity is yet to be established.

Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that the mission pilot was First Lieutenant Sergey Pantelyuk, who didn’t return from a combat mission in 1987.

Another source in Battle Brotherhood told TASS that the missing aviator was actually Senior Pilot Aleksandr Mironov, not Pantelyuk. Mironov could have been imprisoned by insurgents after his plane was shot down during a combat mission outside of Kabul in 1982. His crashed MIG fighter was discovered with an empty pilot’s seat, which had its safety belts cut off.

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