Libyan Pilot Defects in MIG Jet Fighter

ATHENS —  A Libyan MIG-23 jet fighter crash-landed Wednesday at a military airfield on Crete, and its pilot asked for political asylum, the air force said.

Air force spokesman Col. Pavlos Sissas said the pilot suffered chest injuries when his plane overshot the runway at Malleme airport in western Crete, crashed in a field and caught fire. He managed to crawl out of the cockpit before the plane was engulfed in flames.

The jet’s pilot, a Libyan air force captain, identified himself as 28-year-old Jamal Salah al-Kabui, 28. “He told us he wanted political asylum as he was being airlifted by helicopter to the naval hospital,” Sissas said.