Sergei Ivanovich Safronov (Russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Сафро́нов; 25 March 1930 – 1 May 1960) was a senior lieutenant and fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Defence Forces.

[1] In the 1960 U-2 incident Safronov and his flight leader, deputy squadron commander Captain Boris Ayvazyan were vectored to intercept Gary Powers' Lockheed U-2 (after refueling at Sverdlovsk's Koltsovo Airport) with their MiG-19 fighters after an earlier attempt by a Sukhoi Su-9 failed.

[2][3] (The matter is confused in some sources with a salvo fired at the U-2 by another battery just two minutes after the first missile destroyed it, since the large fragments were interpreted on radars like chaff that the plane dropped, continuing to escape.

After the affair was fully broken by Khrushchev in a Supreme Soviet speech on Saturday 7 May, its Presidium issued a public decree (No 237/12) presenting Safronov the Order of the Red Banner along with Major Mikhail Voronov and Captain Nikolai Shelud'ko, commanders of the two missile batteries which had engaged the U-2.

[5] Safronov married Anna Vasilievna Panfilova[9] his high school classmate,[5] and had a son, Alexander Sergeievich[10] who went on to study at a civilian aviation academy.