A Syrian fighter pilot on a training mission flew his MiG-21 warplane to neighboring Jordan, where he was given asylum Thursday. The defection from the fiercely loyal Syrian air force signals that some of the most ironclad allegiances in Damascus could be fraying. Syria immediately denounced the pilot as a traitor. The brazen move was a clear triumph for the rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and was the first defection by an air force officer with his plane since the uprising began in March 2011. The pilot, identified as Col. Hassan Hammadeh, removed his air force tag and kneeled on the tarmac in prayer after landing at King Hussein Air Base in Mafraq, Jordan, 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of Amman, a Jordanian security official said. Hammadeh will be allowed to stay in Jordan on "humanitarian grounds," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. "He was given asylum because if he returned home, his safety will not be guaranteed. He may be tortured or killed," the official said. He declined to say what Jordan will do with the jet. Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, reported earlier that authorities had lost contact with a MiG-21 on a training mission. After the defection became clear, SANA quoted an unidentified military official as saying the pilot was "a traitor to his country and his military honor." Syria's Defense Ministry said "measures will be taken against [the pilot] in accordance with Syrian military laws." It added that Damascus was in contact with "concerned parties" about getting the jet back. Thousands of soldiers have abandoned the regime since the military began firing on protesters at the start of the uprising. Many defectors have joined a rebel force known as the Free Syrian Army and the conflict looks more like a civil war every day. Still, the rebels remain far outgunned. The Obama administration praised the pilot as "very courageous," with State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland adding that there have been hundreds of defections so far, mainly lower- and middle-ranking officials. Pentagon spokesman George Little called the defection "the right thing" to do, and said he didn't yet know whether the U.S. would have access to the pilot. "We've long called for members of the Syrian armed forces and members of the Syrian regime to defect and to abandon their positions, rather than be complicit in the regime's atrocities," Little said. "This is just one of countless instances where Syrians, including members of the security forces, have rejected the abysmal actions of the Assad regime, and it certainly will not be the last," he said. U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford posted a message on Facebook urging soldiers to abandon the regime late Wednesday. "Members of the Syrian military should reconsider their support for a regime that is losing the battle," Ford wrote on the embassy's page. "The Assad regime cannot outlast the desire of Syrian people for a democratic state." Jordanian Information Minister Sameeh Maaytah confirmed the pilot had defected and had been granted political asylum. He said the plane landed at 10:45 a.m. (07:45 GMT). It was "the biggest and most dangerous defection in Syria since the crisis began," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights. "Defections in the air force form a real danger to the Syrian regime," he added. "The only people who are allowed to join the air force in Syria are strong regime loyalists." Despite more than a year of deadly violence, Syria's military generally has stood by Assad unlike the armies of Tunisia and Egypt, which turned on their leaders. Assad and his father before him stacked key military posts with members of their minority Alawite sect in the past 40 years, ensuring the loyalty of the armed forces by melding the fate of the army and the regime. The air force is particularly close to the regime. Assad's late father and predecessor, Hafez, was an air force pilot and commander before seizing power in 1970. Free Syrian Army spokesman Ahmad Kassem said the group had encouraged the pilot to defect and monitored his activity until the Soviet-made jet landed safely in Jordan. The pilot was based in southern Syria, he said. The pilot's family was reportedly aligned with the opposition. The pilot's defection was a sensitive issue for Jordan, which wants to avoid getting dragged into the Syrian conflict. Jordan already has taken in 125,000 Syrian refugees, including hundreds of army and police defectors, and Syria is seeking their extradition. The presence of a high-profile defector could complicate ties between the countries. Syria is one of Jordan's largest Arab trade partners, with bilateral trade estimated at $470 million last year. The Syrian regime has been hit with defections before, although none as dramatic as the one Thursday. Meanwhile Friday, the British Telegraph reported that several senior Syrian officials were making plans to defect to the West, in the event that Assad's regime is toppled by the armed opposition. The report, which quotes American officials, indicated that senior officials in the Syrian presidential palace, including military officials and Assad's close associates, have transferred funds to Lebanese and Chinese bank accounts in preparation for a possible defection. In March, however, Turkish officials said two generals, a colonel and two sergeants defected from the Syrian army and fled to Turkey. Also that month, Syria's deputy oil minister became the highest-ranking civilian official to join the opposition and urged his countrymen to "abandon this sinking ship." Brig. Gen. Mostafa Ahmad al-Sheik, who fled to Turkey in January, was the highest ranking officer to bolt. In late August, Adnan Bakkour, the attorney general of the central city of Hama, appeared in a video announcing he had defected. In January, Imad Ghalioun, a member of Syria's parliament, left the country to join the opposition, saying the country was suffering sweeping human rights violations. The pilot's defection came at a time when Syria has started using its air force against rebels something it had appeared reluctant to do previously. But in recent weeks, as rebels attacked government tanks, Syrian troops used helicopter gunships to besiege opposition areas. The MiG-21 was once considered the pride of the Arab nations' air force, and is still seen as one of the most successful warplanes in the MiG line in its time. The Soviet Union had supplied its Arab allies, namely Egypt, Syria and Iraq, with large quantities of MiG-21 aircraft. In the past 40 years Israel has experienced a few enemy defections as well. In 1966 an Iraq pilot coordinated with the Mossad and defected to Israel with a MiG-21. The plane was sent to the U.S. and then returned to Israel, the subsequent analysis of the aircraft gave the Israel Air Force a significant advantage during the aerial combat in 1967 Six Day War. Two Syrian MiG-17 erroneously landed in Israel in 1968 claiming they thought they were in Lebanon, and were captured. In 1989 a Syrian pilot surprised the military when he landed his MiG-23 in northern Israel and declared that he wanted to defect, the government was content to accept the unexpected gift.
