Syrian fighter pilot uses jet to defect to Jordan BEIRUT - Jordan granted political asylum to a Syrian fighter pilot who defected on Thursday after flying his jet across the border, the first such case since the Syrian uprising erupted 15 months ago. Samih al-Maaytah, Jordan's minister of state for information, confirmed that a fighter pilot landed his MIG-21 fighter jet at an air base in Jordan and requested political asylum. A Jordanian government statement later said the request had been granted. Tens of thousands of soldiers have defected from the Syrian army in the last 15 months and many have joined thearmed rebellion against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. But this was the first time a fighter jet was involved. The defection came hours after U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford posted a plea on the U.S. Embassy Damascus" Facebook page urging members of the Syrian military to abandon their posts and join the opposition, and warning those who do not that they may face international prosecution for war crimes if the regime falls. "Members of the Syrian military should reconsider their support for a regime that is losing the battle," Ford wrote. The officers and soldiers of the Syrian military have a choice to make. Do they want to expose themselves to criminal prosecution by supporting the barbaric actions of the Assad regime against the Syrian people? Or do they want to help secure the role of the professional military in a democratic Syria by supporting the Syrian people....? It is not yet clear whether the defection of this lone pilot signifies anything more than an individual case of disgruntlement with the government's handling of the crisis, which began as a peaceful uprising but has in recent months evolved into a full-blown conflict between the army and rebels fighting in the name of the Free Syrian Army. The official Syrian news agency SANA did not mention the defection, but reported that contact had been lost with a Russian-made MIG-21 fighter jet that was on a training flight near the southern border at around 10:34 am. The report named the pilot as Col. Hassan Mirei al-Hamadeh.