Fighter Pilots Put Goodwill Into Games : Soviet arrival: U.S. Air Force scrambles when guest planes show up a day earlier than expected.

Three Soviet planes have arrived in Seattle for the Goodwill Games, but not before surprising the U.S. Air Force, which was expecting them a day later and had to scramble jets to intercept them over Alaska.

An Ilyushin-62 passenger plane carrying Goodwill Games visitors and alternative Soviet art, accompanied by two SU-27 military jet fighters, left the Soviet Union Friday.

The planes had been delayed leaving Moscow for a day, then delayed again when they stopped to refuel in the Soviet Far East.

“We were afraid that they would close the border for us, so we left today, the day before we were scheduled to take off,” said Nina Walsh, the Soviet-born wife of Bob Walsh, president of the Seattle Organizing Committee for the Olympic-style games and a passenger on the airliner.

The Ilyushin had been cleared to leave Wednesday, but its two escorts had permission for Friday, Walsh said.

The pilots took a chance and all three planes left the Soviet Union, crossing over at a remote strategic point where communications are poor, she said.

The problem was, when they crossed the international date line, they dropped back to Thursday--the day before they had been permitted entry to the United States.

U.S. fighter planes intercepted them about 100 miles northwest of Nome, Alaska, and escorted them to Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage.

“It was unbelievable,” Walsh said of the four aircraft--two Soviet, two American--flying next to the Ilyushin.

The planes flew close and changed positions around the passenger aircraft, she said. “We took hundreds of pictures. The escort pilots weren’t supposed to talk to each other, but we could tell they were understanding each other.”

“We had picked them up on long-range radar as unknown tracks. We knew what they were when we went up to get them,” Capt. Monica Aloisio, spokeswoman for the Air Force, said of the Soviet planes. “But we were expecting them tomorrow.”

The planes stayed at Elmendorf until late Thursday, unable to get State Department permission to proceed to Seattle. Bob Walsh called Andy Card, special assistant to President Bush, and Card called the Defense Department.

The Soviet and American pilots and their families mingled at an Air Force luncheon while they waited.

Escorted by two U.S. F-15 fighter planes, the three planes finally arrived in Seattle Thursday night.