Matthias Rust lands his plane in Red Square - May 28, 1987 - HISTORY.com Matthias Rust lands his plane in Red Square Share this: Matthias Rust lands his plane in Red Square Author Matthias Rust lands his plane in Red Square URL Publisher A+E Networks Matthias Rust, a 19-year-old amateur pilot from West Germany, takes off from Helsinki, Finland, travels through more than 400 miles of Soviet airspace, and lands his small Cessna aircraft in Red Square by the Kremlin. The event proved to be an immense embarrassment to the Soviet government and military. Rust, described by his mother as a “quiet young man…with a passion for flying,” apparently had no political or social agenda when he took off from the international airport in Helsinki and headed for Moscow. He entered Soviet airspace, but was either undetected or ignored as he pushed farther and farther into the Soviet Union. Early on the morning of May 28, 1987, he arrived over Moscow, circled Red Square a few times, and then landed just a few hundred yards from the Kremlin. Curious onlookers and tourists, many believing that Rust was part of an air show, immediately surrounded him.

Very quickly, however, Rust was arrested and whisked away. He was tried for violating Soviet airspace and sentenced to prison. He served 18 months before being released. The repercussions in the Soviet Union were immediate. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sacked his minister of defense, and the entire Russian military was humiliated by Rust’s flight into Moscow. U.S. officials had a field day with the event–one American diplomat in the Soviet Union joked, “Maybe we should build a bunch of Cessnas.” Soviet officials were less amused. Four years earlier, the Soviets had been harshly criticized for shooting down a Korean Airlines passenger jet that veered into Russian airspace. Now, the Soviets were laughingstocks for not being able to stop one teenager’s “invasion” of the country. One Russian spokesperson bluntly declared, “You criticize us for shooting down a plane, and now you criticize us for not shooting down a plane.” Related Videos Mathias Rust: German teenager who flew to Red Square - BBC News BBC News Mathias Rust: German teenager who flew to Red Square By Chloe Hadjimatheou BBC World Service 7 December 2012 Read more about sharing.

Close share panel In 1987 a West German teenager shocked the world, by flying through Soviet air defences to land a Cessna aeroplane in Red Square. He was jailed for more than a year - but a quarter of a century later, he has no regrets. Exactly 25 years ago, the USSR Foreign Ministry announced that it had rejected an appeal by a German teenager against his prison sentence. Mathias Rust, just 19, had single-handedly flown more than 500 miles (750km) through every Soviet defensive shield in a single-engine plane to land at the gates of the Kremlin. The idea had come to him a year earlier while he was watching TV at his parents' home where he lived in Hamburg, West Germany. A summit between the US and Soviet presidents in Reykjavik had ended in a stalemate, and the teenager who had a passion for politics felt he wanted to do something to make a difference. Image caption Rust was sentenced to four years in a labour camp "I thought every human on this planet is responsible for some progress and I was looking for an opportunity to take my share in it," he says.

Rust already had a pilot's licence and had clocked up 50 hours in the air when it occurred to him to put his skill to use. "I was thinking I could use the aircraft to build an imaginary bridge between West and East to show that a lot of people in Europe wanted to improve relations between our worlds." Many idealistic teenagers may have had similar fantasies of bringing about world peace by performing daring acts. The difference with Rust is that he actually went ahead with his plan. On 13 May 1987 he told his parents he was going to tour northern Europe in a Cessna airplane, in order to clock up hours towards his professional pilot's licence. His first stop was in the Shetland Islands, then the Faroe Islands. He spent one night in each. Next came the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, then Bergen in Norway before he arrived on 25 May in the Finnish capital, Helsinki. He spent several days there trying to decide if he really had the courage to go through with his plan. He had good reason to be nervous. Media captionArchive footage of Mathias Rust landing in Red Square The USSR had the largest air defence system in the world.

Less than five years earlier, a South Korean civilian airliner had been shot down after straying into Soviet air space, causing the death of all 269 passengers on board. "Of course I was afraid to lose my life," Rust recalls. "I was weighing if it is really responsible, reasonable, to take this kind of risk. At the end I came to the conclusion, 'I have to risk it.'" I am here on a peace mission from Germany Mathias Rust, Red Square, May 1987 On the morning of 28 May, he told air traffic control in Helsinki he would be heading to Stockholm, in Sweden. Even then he wasn't completely sure he would go through with it. "I made the final decision about half an hour after departure. I just changed the direction to 170 degrees and I was heading straight down to Moscow," he says. Back in Helsinki, operators at air control began to worry. Rust was heading in the wrong direction and then vanished from their radar screens before they could make radio contact. An enormous manhunt was launched by the Finnish coastguard and when a patch of oil was spotted on the sea surface, divers were brought in to search for a wreck.

While they were hunting for him, Rust was sitting snug in his cockpit as his plane crossed into Soviet airspace, over Estonia. 1. Heads from Helsinki towards Stockholm and turns off transponder 2. Does U-turn near Finnish town of Nummela 3. Flies past his first waypoint, a radio beacon, as fighters are scrambled 4. Passes Lake Seliger, a popular summer retreat 5. Is spotted by radar in Torzhok 6. Flies right through Moscow's air defences to land by the Kremlin Within minutes he had been picked up by Soviet radar, and less than an hour later a MiG fighter jet approached him. "It passed me on my left side so close that I could see the two pilots sitting in the cockpit and I saw of course the red star of the wing of the aircraft." Rust was terrified, but instead of attacking him, the jet passed by and disappeared into the clouds. A combination of unbelievable luck and human error had led to Rust's plane being mistaken for a friendly aircraft. A plane crash the previous day, and an ongoing rescue operation, along with training for new pilots had led to confusion in the air and in control centres.

Find out more Somehow Rust managed to make it hundreds of miles across Soviet airspace to the capital without any further contact from USSR defence forces. "I couldn't believe I actually survived," he recalls. "I had calculated at the time that my chances of survival were about 50:50 and after I reached my destination, I knew that I really was on the lucky side." But his relief at seeing the spires and domes of Moscow quickly faded when he realised that landing was going to be difficult. He had wanted to bring down the plane in the middle of Red Square in order to make a big statement but the landmark was packed full of people. Rust's Cessna 172 Skyhawk Popular mass-produced light aircraft - Rust signed one out from flying club for three weeks Four-seater equipped with extra fuel tanks boosting range from 200 miles (324km) to 860 miles (1,389km) Supplies - maps, sleeping bag, 15 quarts engine oil, life vest and motorcycle crash helmet On the ground, Soviet citizens were stopping and looking up in amazement as the small white plane circled just 30 ft (10m) above the ground.

Finally Rust spotted a four-lane bridge next to St Basil's Cathedral so he circled around one more time and touched down there. Later, when he was questioned by the Russian police, he learned that the bridge was usually spanned by thick cables, which would have made a landing impossible. By chance, they had been removed from the bridge that very morning for maintenance. "The police presumed that I had co-operators in Moscow who had arranged it so that I would be able to land," Rust says. At around 19:00, just as the sun was going down, Rust taxied his plane into the square and climbed out of the cockpit to greet the crowds which gathered around him. They wanted to know where the young foreigner was from and why he was there. "I am here on a peace mission from Germany," Rust told them. When they shook his hand, glad to meet an ally, he had to explain that he came from "the other Germany", West not the Communist East as they presumed.

Dr Robin Stott, a British doctor who happened to be in Moscow as part of an anti-nuclear pressure group, was taking time out from a non-proliferation conference to see the sights when Rust landed his plane right in front of him. "It was an extraordinary thing. None of us had a clue what was going on," he recalls. Image caption He now works as yoga instructor and financial analyst "Everyone around him was very impressed; even the security services kept saying what a brave boy they thought he was." Once the police had recovered from the shock of finding an unauthorised aircraft parked at the gates of the Kremlin, Rust was arrested. He spent hours trying to persuade the authorities that he had acted alone and was not part of some sinister plot hatched by foreign governments. In the Kremlin there was shock and plenty of red faces as the full extent of the humiliating incident became apparent. But it is likely that President Gorbachev realised he could use the opportunity to his advantage to rid himself of military officials whom he saw as standing in the way of his reforms. Within a couple of days the minister of defence had been forced to retire, and the head of the air defence services had been sacked.

Over the next few months more than 150 people lost their jobs. Rust was charged and pleaded guilty to violating international flight rules and illegally crossing the Soviet border. After some confusion in court he pleaded not guilty to "malicious hooliganism". The judge sentenced him to four years in a labour camp for what he called an act of adventurism. Despite being allowed to serve his time in Lefortovo prison in Moscow, Rust took his confinement badly. Soviet leaders lash out Rust bypasses Soviet air defence system of 2,250 aircraft and 10,000 surface-to-air missiles Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev holds an emergency meeting of the ruling Politburo - it criticises air defence ministers for carelessness and lack of decisiveness Defence Minister Sergei Sokolov is forced to retire - air defence chief Alexander Koldunov is sacked About 150 officers are removed from their posts "It was really hard for me being just 19 years old to just be locked up for 23 hours a day. I had a lot of difficulty keeping food down and I lost a lot of weight," he says.

Then in 1988, following the signing of a non-proliferation treaty by Reagan and Gorbachev, Rust was released as a gesture of good will after serving only 14 months. Rust's flight was seen as so incredible to Muscovites that it wormed its way into popular culture. For a while Red Square was jokingly referred to as Sheremetyevo-3 - Sheremetyevo-1 and -2 are airports near Moscow. Within a year of returning to Hamburg, Rust stabbed a colleague at a hospital where he worked and ended up behind bars again. Today he makes his living as a financial analyst and a yoga instructor. He says he has no regrets about what he did and believes he had a hand in helping President Gorbachev with his reforms. "I am very convinced that I enabled him to push through his Perestroika and Glasnost much faster than he would have done without me." Chloe Hadjimatheou's interview with Mathias Rust was broadcast on the BBC World Service's Witness programme . You can download a podcast of the programme or browse the archive .

You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook Mathias Rust: German teenager who flew to Red Square - BBC News BBC News Mathias Rust: German teenager who flew to Red Square By Chloe Hadjimatheou BBC World Service 7 December 2012 Read more about sharing. Close share panel In 1987 a West German teenager shocked the world, by flying through Soviet air defences to land a Cessna aeroplane in Red Square. He was jailed for more than a year - but a quarter of a century later, he has no regrets. Exactly 25 years ago, the USSR Foreign Ministry announced that it had rejected an appeal by a German teenager against his prison sentence. Mathias Rust, just 19, had single-handedly flown more than 500 miles (750km) through every Soviet defensive shield in a single-engine plane to land at the gates of the Kremlin. The idea had come to him a year earlier while he was watching TV at his parents' home where he lived in Hamburg, West Germany.

A summit between the US and Soviet presidents in Reykjavik had ended in a stalemate, and the teenager who had a passion for politics felt he wanted to do something to make a difference. Image caption Rust was sentenced to four years in a labour camp "I thought every human on this planet is responsible for some progress and I was looking for an opportunity to take my share in it," he says. Rust already had a pilot's licence and had clocked up 50 hours in the air when it occurred to him to put his skill to use. "I was thinking I could use the aircraft to build an imaginary bridge between West and East to show that a lot of people in Europe wanted to improve relations between our worlds." Many idealistic teenagers may have had similar fantasies of bringing about world peace by performing daring acts. The difference with Rust is that he actually went ahead with his plan. On 13 May 1987 he told his parents he was going to tour northern Europe in a Cessna airplane, in order to clock up hours towards his professional pilot's licence. His first stop was in the Shetland Islands, then the Faroe Islands. He spent one night in each.

Next came the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, then Bergen in Norway before he arrived on 25 May in the Finnish capital, Helsinki. He spent several days there trying to decide if he really had the courage to go through with his plan. He had good reason to be nervous. Media captionArchive footage of Mathias Rust landing in Red Square The USSR had the largest air defence system in the world. Less than five years earlier, a South Korean civilian airliner had been shot down after straying into Soviet air space, causing the death of all 269 passengers on board. "Of course I was afraid to lose my life," Rust recalls. "I was weighing if it is really responsible, reasonable, to take this kind of risk. At the end I came to the conclusion, 'I have to risk it.'" I am here on a peace mission from Germany Mathias Rust, Red Square, May 1987 On the morning of 28 May, he told air traffic control in Helsinki he would be heading to Stockholm, in Sweden. Even then he wasn't completely sure he would go through with it. "I made the final decision about half an hour after departure.

I just changed the direction to 170 degrees and I was heading straight down to Moscow," he says. Back in Helsinki, operators at air control began to worry. Rust was heading in the wrong direction and then vanished from their radar screens before they could make radio contact. An enormous manhunt was launched by the Finnish coastguard and when a patch of oil was spotted on the sea surface, divers were brought in to search for a wreck. While they were hunting for him, Rust was sitting snug in his cockpit as his plane crossed into Soviet airspace, over Estonia. 1. Heads from Helsinki towards Stockholm and turns off transponder 2. Does U-turn near Finnish town of Nummela 3. Flies past his first waypoint, a radio beacon, as fighters are scrambled 4. Passes Lake Seliger, a popular summer retreat 5. Is spotted by radar in Torzhok 6. Flies right through Moscow's air defences to land by the Kremlin Within minutes he had been picked up by Soviet radar, and less than an hour later a MiG fighter jet approached him.

"It passed me on my left side so close that I could see the two pilots sitting in the cockpit and I saw of course the red star of the wing of the aircraft." Rust was terrified, but instead of attacking him, the jet passed by and disappeared into the clouds. A combination of unbelievable luck and human error had led to Rust's plane being mistaken for a friendly aircraft. A plane crash the previous day, and an ongoing rescue operation, along with training for new pilots had led to confusion in the air and in control centres. Find out more Somehow Rust managed to make it hundreds of miles across Soviet airspace to the capital without any further contact from USSR defence forces. "I couldn't believe I actually survived," he recalls. "I had calculated at the time that my chances of survival were about 50:50 and after I reached my destination, I knew that I really was on the lucky side." But his relief at seeing the spires and domes of Moscow quickly faded when he realised that landing was going to be difficult. He had wanted to bring down the plane in the middle of Red Square in order to make a big statement but the landmark was packed full of people.

Rust's Cessna 172 Skyhawk Popular mass-produced light aircraft - Rust signed one out from flying club for three weeks Four-seater equipped with extra fuel tanks boosting range from 200 miles (324km) to 860 miles (1,389km) Supplies - maps, sleeping bag, 15 quarts engine oil, life vest and motorcycle crash helmet On the ground, Soviet citizens were stopping and looking up in amazement as the small white plane circled just 30 ft (10m) above the ground. Finally Rust spotted a four-lane bridge next to St Basil's Cathedral so he circled around one more time and touched down there. Later, when he was questioned by the Russian police, he learned that the bridge was usually spanned by thick cables, which would have made a landing impossible. By chance, they had been removed from the bridge that very morning for maintenance. "The police presumed that I had co-operators in Moscow who had arranged it so that I would be able to land," Rust says.

At around 19:00, just as the sun was going down, Rust taxied his plane into the square and climbed out of the cockpit to greet the crowds which gathered around him. They wanted to know where the young foreigner was from and why he was there. "I am here on a peace mission from Germany," Rust told them. When they shook his hand, glad to meet an ally, he had to explain that he came from "the other Germany", West not the Communist East as they presumed. Dr Robin Stott, a British doctor who happened to be in Moscow as part of an anti-nuclear pressure group, was taking time out from a non-proliferation conference to see the sights when Rust landed his plane right in front of him. "It was an extraordinary thing. None of us had a clue what was going on," he recalls. Image caption He now works as yoga instructor and financial analyst "Everyone around him was very impressed; even the security services kept saying what a brave boy they thought he was." Once the police had recovered from the shock of finding an unauthorised aircraft parked at the gates of the Kremlin, Rust was arrested.

He spent hours trying to persuade the authorities that he had acted alone and was not part of some sinister plot hatched by foreign governments. In the Kremlin there was shock and plenty of red faces as the full extent of the humiliating incident became apparent. But it is likely that President Gorbachev realised he could use the opportunity to his advantage to rid himself of military officials whom he saw as standing in the way of his reforms. Within a couple of days the minister of defence had been forced to retire, and the head of the air defence services had been sacked. Over the next few months more than 150 people lost their jobs. Rust was charged and pleaded guilty to violating international flight rules and illegally crossing the Soviet border. After some confusion in court he pleaded not guilty to "malicious hooliganism". The judge sentenced him to four years in a labour camp for what he called an act of adventurism. Despite being allowed to serve his time in Lefortovo prison in Moscow, Rust took his confinement badly.

Soviet leaders lash out Rust bypasses Soviet air defence system of 2,250 aircraft and 10,000 surface-to-air missiles Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev holds an emergency meeting of the ruling Politburo - it criticises air defence ministers for carelessness and lack of decisiveness Defence Minister Sergei Sokolov is forced to retire - air defence chief Alexander Koldunov is sacked About 150 officers are removed from their posts "It was really hard for me being just 19 years old to just be locked up for 23 hours a day. I had a lot of difficulty keeping food down and I lost a lot of weight," he says. Then in 1988, following the signing of a non-proliferation treaty by Reagan and Gorbachev, Rust was released as a gesture of good will after serving only 14 months. Rust's flight was seen as so incredible to Muscovites that it wormed its way into popular culture. For a while Red Square was jokingly referred to as Sheremetyevo-3 - Sheremetyevo-1 and -2 are airports near Moscow.

Within a year of returning to Hamburg, Rust stabbed a colleague at a hospital where he worked and ended up behind bars again. Today he makes his living as a financial analyst and a yoga instructor. He says he has no regrets about what he did and believes he had a hand in helping President Gorbachev with his reforms. "I am very convinced that I enabled him to push through his Perestroika and Glasnost much faster than he would have done without me." Chloe Hadjimatheou's interview with Mathias Rust was broadcast on the BBC World Service's Witness programme . You can download a podcast of the programme or browse the archive . You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook German Teenager Matthias Rust flies his plane across Iron Curtain & lands on Moscow’s Red Square - Kickass Trips Kickass Trips The world’s greatest collection of awesome, crazy & original travels tales, trip testimonies and adventures that kick ass!! Search for: MarcF Imagine standing on Moscow’s red square in 1987, the time of the cold war, the iron curtain and a very inaccessible USSR / Soviet Union.

And imagine seeing a plane passing just 10 meter above your head before it lands in front of the Kremlin on Russia’s most famous square. This is exaclty what German teenager Matthias Rust, who was just 18 years old at the time, accomplished on the 28th of May 1987. It was some time after a summit between the US and Soviet presidents in Reykjavik had ended in a stalemate, and Matthias who had a passion for politics, felt he wanted to do something to make a difference. “I was thinking I could use an aircraft to build an imaginary bridge between West and East to show that a lot of people in Europe wanted to improve relations between our worlds.” Rust was an inexperienced pilot with only 50 hours of flying experience when on May 13 he told his parents he was going to tour northern Europe in a rented Cessna airplane, in order to clock up hours towards his professional pilot’s licence. His first stop was in the Shetland Islands, before advancing to the Faroe Islands where he spent a night each.

Next stop was the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, where he visited Hofdi House, the site of the unsuccessful talks between the United States and the Soviet Union. After that he flew to Bergen in Norway before he arrived in the Finnish capital, Helsinki on May 25. He spent several days there trying to decide if he really had the courage to go through with his plan. He had good reason to be nervous, as the USSR had the largest air defence system in the world. Less than five years earlier, a South Korean civilian airliner had been shot down after straying into Soviet air space, causing the death of all 269 passengers on board. In the morning of May 28, 1987, Rust refueled at Helsinki-Malmi Airport. He told air traffic control that he was going to Stockholm, and took off at 12:21pm. However, right after his final communication with traffic control he turned his plane to the east. Air traffic controllers tried to contact him as he was moving around the busy Helsinki–Moscow route, but Rust turned off all communications equipment aboard.

Within minutes he had been picked up by Soviet radar, and less than an hour later a MiG fighter jet approached him.Rust was terrified, but instead of attacking him, the jet passed by and disappeared into the clouds. A combination of unbelievable luck and human error had led to Rust’s plane being mistaken for a friendly aircraft. A plane crash the previous day, and an ongoing rescue operation, along with training for new pilots had led to confusion in the air and in control centres. When Rust finally saw the spires and domes of Moscow’s red square buildings his relief quickly faded when he saw that an overcrowded Red Square full of people was going to make his landing there very difficult.On the ground, Soviet citizens were stopping and looked up in amazement as the small white plane circled just 30 ft (10m) above the ground. In the end, Rust spotted a four-lane bridge next to St Basil’s Cathedral so he circled around one more time and touched down there. At around 7pm, just as the sun was going down, Rust taxied his plane into the square and climbed out of the cockpit to greet the curious onlookers which had gathered around him. Two hours later Rust got arrested.

In the Kremlin there was shock and plenty of red faces as the full extent of the humiliating incident became apparent. For President Gorbachev however it turned into a golden opportunity to rid himself of military officials whom he saw as standing in the way of his reforms. Within a couple of days the minister of defence had been forced to retire, and the head of the air defence services had been sacked. Over the next few months more than 150 people lost their jobs. Rust was charged and pleaded guilty to violating international flight rules and illegally crossing the Soviet border and got sentenced him to four years in a labour camp. Then in 1988, following the signing of a non-proliferation treaty by Reagan and Gorbachev, Rust was released as a gesture of goodwill after serving only 14 months. Rust’s flight was seen as so incredible to Muscovites that it wormed its way into popular culture. For a while Red Square was jokingly referred to as Sheremetyevo-3 after Sheremetyevo-1 and -2 which are airports near Moscow. Kickass stuff indeed!

Matthias Rust’s Daring Flight | Iconic Photos Famous, Infamous and Iconic Photos Matthias Rust’s Daring Flight with 12 comments Throughout the most of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was deemed to have been surrounded by an impenetrable airspace. There was that U2 incident in 1960, and in 1983, a civilian airliner was shot down for failing to respond to Soviet interceptors. But on May 28, 1987, this myth of Soviet might would be challenged by a West German teenager. Matthais Rust spent his allowances to take 50 hours worth of flying lessons before embarking on an unauthorized flight from Helsinki to the heart of Moscow. Rust was picked up by radar. A Soviet fighter jet was in pursuit, but it could only communicate on military frequencies that Rust’s Cessna couldn’t receive. The Soviets assumed that he was either on a search-and-rescue mission or a student pilot. Six hours later, he made it to Moscow, and decided to land just outside the Kremlin walls. (He worried that if he had landed inside, the Soviets would arrest him and deny the whole thing). He landed by St.

Basil’s Cathedral and taxied into the Red Square. Although he mingled with the people there–who thought he was part of an airshow–the KGB was also on spot to arrest him. For violation of the Soviet airspace and oddly enough, hooliganism, Rust was put on trial. He served 432 days of his four-year sentence. The boy whom the media called “the new Red Baron” or “Don Quixote of the skies” never flew again. Inside the Kremlin walls, Mikhail Gorbechev would use the incident to shake up the Soviet military industrial complex and sack his top-brass. Looking back on it, Rust’s escapade was historic. His landing in Red Square was an unignorable symbol, the writing on the wall, a sign that the all-powerful Soviet Union was no longer fully in control. At the time, however, no one recognized its significance. Rate this: May 28, 1987: Teen Tests Soviet Air Defenses | WIRED May 28, 1987: Teen Tests Soviet Air Defenses subscribe 6 months for $5 - plus a FREE Portable Phone Charger. Author: John C Abell.

John C Abell Date of Publication: 05.28.09. Time of Publication: 12:00 am. 12:00 am May 28, 1987: Teen Tests Soviet Air Defenses 1987: West German teenager Mathias Rust cracks the Iron Curtain with an incredible unauthorized flight from Helsinki to the heart of Moscow — and lives to tell the tale. The Cold War was still in full force in the spring of 1987. Rust , described by his mother as “a quiet young man of wonderful character with a passion for flying,” decided he was going to help us all just get along. Not only did he escape a fiery death and fail to ignite World War III, but his stunt actually smoothed the way for an eventual easing of global tensions. U.S. President Ronald Reagan was an old-school Commie-hater who in all seriousness called the Soviet Union “The Evil Empire.” He once joked on an inadvertently open microphone: “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever.

The bombing begins in five minutes.” Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev — who must have known the real extent of a dismal economy that would cause the USSR to implode only four years later — wanted to introduce reforms and embrace the West, but he faced considerable institutional resistance. Each side had thousands of nuclear warheads and the ability to deliver a devastating nuclear payload within minutes . Improbable accidents had been the common literary device underpinning apocalyptic 1960s Cold War movies like Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe. While tensions had cooled somewhat by 1987, the possibility of MAD, or mutually assured destruction , still seemed only a single, small misstep away. Enter an improbable accident waiting to happen. Rust, 19, was determined to prove that the empire really wasn’t all that evil and that Gorbachev was earnest in his desire to end the Cold War. His plan was simple: Violate the most heavily defended airspace in the world, get to Moscow in one piece, and show the world the softer side of the Soviets.

If he could complete his crazy quest to “pass through the Iron Curtain without being intercepted, it would show that Gorbachev was serious about new relations with the West,” Rust told Air & Space Magazine 18 years later. “How would Reagan continue to say it was the ‘Empire of Evil’ if me, in a small aircraft, can go straight there and be unharmed?” Rust was not political or a professional agitator — and he was barely a pilot. He had learned to fly only over the previous couple of years, spending virtually all of his meager earnings (and some of his parents’ money) for lessons, racking up about 50 hours of flight time. His scheme was well-thought-out, all things considered. But without colossal luck, a fair amount of official bungling and an abundance of caution from the Soviets (who did not want a repeat of a 1983 incident when they blew Korean Airlines 007 out of the sky, killing 269 innocents), it could all have gone terribly wrong. Two weeks before his fateful flight Rust checked out a 1980 Cessna Skyhawk 172 from his flying club.

He modded the four-seater to hold auxiliary fuel tanks, giving him the range he would need to reach Moscow. To build his confidence and get in a little last-minute practice, he logged 2,600 miles flying from one Nordic city to another. On the eve of his Moscow flight Rust wavered, thinking his plan could be, you know, a little nuts. The next morning he filed a flight plan for Stockholm — “ my alternate if I chickened out .” He took off, dutifully obeyed instructions from Helsinki air traffic control, exited its air space … and then shut off the plane’s transponder and took a left turn to Moscow. Within minutes Rust was picked up by a radar station in Skrunda, Latvia (then part of the Soviet Union). Missile units were activated. Ground units were put on high alert. It wasn’t long before a Soviet fighter jet was in pursuit. Rust could see his fellow aviator, but said later he wasn’t given any instructions by him. Turns out the MiG could only communicate on military frequencies that the Cessna couldn’t receive. Eventually, the MiG just broke off and disappeared. Rust’s luck continued to hold.

He flew through a training exercise using planes that looked like his Cessna. Radar stations continued to spot him, and assumed the best. One mistook him for a helicopter on a search-and-rescue mission. Another thought he was a student pilot who had forgotten to set his transponder to “friendly.” At any moment Rust could have been fired upon, or at least forced to land. But the KAL incident had made the Soviet military gun-shy. Only the most senior commanders now had the authority to issue shoot-down orders and, on this day, they were all at a meeting in East Berlin. Six hours into his flight, as dusk approached, Rust reached the outskirts of Moscow. He wanted to head to the Kremlin but had trouble finding it. So he buzzed the city for a while. When he spotted the landmark, he had one last decision to make: Try for inside the Kremlin walls, or not. Personal safety (irony noted) dictated his choice. “If I landed inside the wall, only a few people would see me, and they could just take me away and deny the whole thing,” Rust said .

“But if I landed in the square, plenty of people would see me, and the KGB couldn’t just arrest me and lie about it. So it was for my own security that I dropped that idea.” Rust actually landed on a bridge by St. Basil’s Cathedral and taxied to within about 100 yards of Red Square. He mingled with curious passers-by for a bit, and was put under arrest. After a trial on charges which included hooliganism, he served about 18 months of a four-year sentence, and then was allowed to return home. Rust never flew again, but he did get into serious trouble. He was convicted of attempted murder in 1989 when he stabbed a woman who had rejected him. He served 15 months in prison for that. He was convicted of shoplifting in 2001 and fraud in 2005, paying fines each time. In a series of interviews he did in 2007, the 20th anniversary of his flight, Rust said he had become a successful high-stakes poker player . That can’t be confirmed, but Rust had already proven to a nervous world that he was something of a gambler.

Source: Various AP Photo: Mathias Rust’s single-engine Cessna aircraft sits in Moscow’s Red Square near St. Basil’s Cathedral, May 28, 1987. The Notorious Flight of Mathias Rust | History | Air & Space Magazine Air & Space Magazine Contact Privacy Policy Terms of Use The Notorious Flight of Mathias Rust Ronald Reagan was president, there was still a Soviet Union, and a 19-year-old pilot set out to change the world (David Povilaitis) Air & Space Magazine | Subscribe July 2005 ON A MILD SPRING DAY IN LATE MAY 1987, military analyst John Pike was at the U.S. embassy in Moscow on business when he looked out the window and saw a small airplane circling over Red Square. Gee, that’s peculiar, thought Pike. There’s no private aviation in the Soviet Union. Hell, there’s no private anything. The aircraft belonged to West German teenager Mathias Rust—or, more accurately, to Rust’s flying club.

In a daring attempt to ease cold war tensions, the 19-year-old amateur pilot had flown a single-engine Cessna nearly 550 miles from Helsinki to the center of Moscow—probably the most heavily defended city on the planet—and parked it at the base of St. Basil’s Cathedral, within spitting distance of Lenin’s tomb. Newspapers dubbed the pilot “the new Red Baron” and the “Don Quixote of the skies.” The stunt became one of the most talked-about aviation feats in history. But it was politics, not fame, that motivated Rust. There is nothing in Rust’s neat two-bedroom apartment outside Berlin—no mementos, no photographs, no framed newspaper headlines—nothing at all to indicate that for a few short weeks 18 years ago he was the most famous pilot in the world. But the memory of the flight has stayed fresh. “It seems like it happened yesterday,” says Rust, now 36. “It’s alive in me.” As a child in Hamburg, Rust had been preoccupied by two things: flying and nuclear Armageddon. Belligerence and distrust marked East-West relations of the time. U.S.

President Ronald Reagan seemed to be on a personal crusade against the Soviet Union. Many Germans were on edge. “There was a real sense of fear,” Rust says, “because if there was a conflict, we all knew we would be the first to be hit.” To many Europeans, Mikhail Gorbachev’s ascendancy to the Soviet leadership in 1985 offered a glimmer of hope. Glasnost, his policy of transparency in government, and perestroika, economic reforms at home, were radical departures from the policies of his predecessors. So when the U.S.-Soviet summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, in October 1986 ended without an arms reduction deal, Rust felt despair. He was particularly angered by Reagan’s reflexive mistrust of the Soviet Union, which Rust felt had blinded the president to the historic opportunity Gorbachev presented. Rust decided he must do something—something big. He settled on the idea of building an “imaginary bridge” by flying to Moscow. If he could reach the Soviet capital, if he could “pass through the Iron Curtain without being intercepted, it would show that Gorbachev was serious about new relations with the West,” says Rust.

“How would Reagan continue to say it was the ‘Empire of Evil’ if me, in a small aircraft, can go straight there and be unharmed?” Rust also prepared a 20-page manifesto he planned to deliver to Gorbachev on how to advance world peace. Rust had taken his first flying lessons only a couple of years before his decision to fly to Moscow. A data processor at a mail-order trinket company, he spent all of his money (and some of his parents’) flying. But by the spring of 1987, he had barely 50 hours of licensed flight time, and had completed just a handful of cross-country trips. “I thought my chances of actually getting to Moscow were about 50-50,” Rust says, noting that in 1983, the Soviets blew Korean Airlines flight 007 out of the sky after it strayed into Soviet airspace near the Kamchatka Peninsula; all 269 persons aboard were killed. “But I was convinced I was doing the right thing—I just had to dare to do it.” To prepare himself for his mission, he planned a practice flight to Reykjavik, the site of the doomed arms talks.

It would be “a long time flying over open water with very little navigation aids,” says Rust. “I figured if I succeeded, I would be able to cope with the pressure of flying to Moscow.” Rust meticulously planned his route and signed out a 1980 Cessna Skyhawk 172 from his flying club for three weeks. The four-seat airplane was equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks that boosted the aircraft’s range by 175 nautical miles to 750 nautical miles—range he would need in order to safely reach Reykjavik, and later Moscow. The club didn’t ask him where he was going, and Rust didn’t say. He packed a small suitcase, a satchel with maps and flight planning supplies, a sleeping bag, 15 quarts of engine oil, and a life vest. As a final precaution, Rust packed a motorcycle crash helmet.

The helmet was for his final leg to Moscow, “because I didn’t know what [the Soviets] would do, and if I was forced down it would give me extra protection [in case of a crash].” Remembering Mathias Rust's Flight to Red Square | Public Radio International Remembering Mathias Rust's Flight to Red Square Mathias Rust and his Cessna 172, resting in Red Square after his landing. Credit: Wiki Commons Twenty-five years ago Friday, at the height of the Cold War, a Soviet court sentenced 19-year-old West German Mathias Rust to four years in prison. Player utilities PRI.org <iframe frameborder="0" src="" height="75" width="100%"></iframe> His crime —flying a single engine plane into Moscow and taxiing into Red Square – made headlines across the globe. It all began in May of 1987. Rust was fed up with the Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. He had a pilot's license, but little experience. So he hopped into a small, single engine Cessna airplane, and told his parents he wanted to bank some flying time.

For two weeks, while he flew around Western Europe, a plan was forming. "I came to the conclusion that I need to do something that puts an end to this dead end situation," Rust tells the BBC. "I thought I could use this plane to build an imaginary bridge between West and East." He spent two weeks psyching himself up in Helsinki, and then took off, telling the tower he was going to Stockholm. Instead, he headed for Moscow, and it wasn't long before he got the attention of the Soviet Air Force. "I was approached by a Soviet fighter,"says Rust. "It circled around me two or three times, and then it passed very close on the left. I could see the two pilots, and of course the red star on the wing of the aircraft." Rust thought he was a goner. But the Soviet plane left him alone, and he flew on. Each control tower along the way, the story goes, thought he was a local pilot. Eventually, Rust saw Moscow. At first, he wanted to land in the Kremlin. But then he decided to try to land in Red Square, which was full of people.

So, he landed nearby, and then taxied into Red Square, to the surprise of onlookers. "I was surrounded by a big crowd of bystanders. Most of them were Russians. And they were standing and smiling at me," Rust remembers. They asked Rust who he was, why he was in Moscow, and where he had come from. "I said I was just here to deliver a peace message to Mikael Gorbachev, and that I just came from Germany." The bystanders smiled, and noted that Germany was a friend of the Soviet Union. "And I said, no, not East Germany. I'm coming from West Germany." Rust was soon arrested, and convicted of illegally crossing the Soviet Border, and "hooliganism." He was sentenced to four years in prison. The case caused quite a stir in Russia. For a while, Red Square was jokingly referred to as Moscow's "third airport." But in the Kremlin, heads rolled. Gorbachev dismissed a number of high-ranking officials. "Gorbachev was able to replace important officials with men of his favor. I think my flight to Moscow helped bring both sides closer to each other," Rust says.

Mathias Rust only served a little more than a year of his four-year sentence. He was released in 1988 as a "goodwill gesture" by the Soviet Union. Rust returned to Germany, where he's had legal troubles as well, including convictions for fraud and attempted manslaughter. He now lives in Hamburg, Germany. He describes himself as a financial analyst…and yoga instructor. By the way, Rust got his own anthem, of sorts, back in 1987 from a West German band called Modern trouble. Enjoy. IN LAW-ABIDING WEST GERMANY, DELIGHT - NYTimes.com IN LAW-ABIDING WEST GERMANY, DELIGHT By JOHN TAGLIABUE, Special to the New York Times Published: May 31, 1987 BONN, May 30— A nation where people customarily wait for a green light before proceeding, even at 2 A.M. at a deserted intersection, appeared bemused and delighted today that a young German had disregarded every rule of flight traffic to penetrate more than 400 miles of Soviet territory and land a small plane Thursday evening at the foot of Red Square.

A television commentator, Dieter Kronzucker, closing his report on the incident, said, ''It's a good thing there were no zebra stripes'' - a reference to the white stripes reserved for pedestrians at crossings, something very few German motorists would disregard. Still, nobody here could say just why Matthias Rust, a 19-year-old pilot from northern Germany, did it. There were reports he was accompanied by a young woman and that he had been arrested while distributing anti-military leaflets to Russians. Complications for Visit There was concern in Bonn that the flight and the youth's arrest might complicate preparations for a visit to Moscow in July by President Richard von Weizsacker, or that the President might have to use his influence to have the youth released, if he were still being held then. But speculation that it was a daredevil deed to impress someone, or a well-planned mission to draw attention to the menace of war, was put down by his parents and also by witnesses in Moscow. Some say the pilot, with only 25 hours of flying time before he left West Germany on May 13, may have gone astray in his single-engine Cessna 172.

But the head of flight traffic control at the Helsinki airport, Martti Lantela, ruled that out. The youth left Helsinki bound for Stockholm, to the west; he flew southeast. ''It was to be a vacation trip,'' the pilot's mother, Monike Rust, said by telephone from the family home in Wedel, north of Hamburg. ''He called us last on Monday night after he arrived in Helsinki. There was absolutely no mention of Moscow. We expected him home this week.'' This is a nation where lawsuits are regularly filed to stop planes of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from flying during midday rest periods. On Friday, the day after Mr. Rust landed, a Stuttgart court, ruling in such a case, said plantiffs could only collect damages because of aircraft noise ''in the case of economically measurable damage to property assets that can no longer be reasonably borne.'' German Hail Youth as Hero But today West Germans were hailing Mr. Rust as a hero. ''This tiny Cessna mosquito has made fools of generals in East and West,'' the Munich newspaper Abendzeitung said.

''For that alone the boy deserves a medal.'' Most newspapers recalled that the landing occurred on the day set aside to honor the Soviet Union's border troops, who were praised Thursday in the Communist Party daily Pravda. ''Every meter,'' the newspaper proclaimed, referring to the huge distances of Soviet borders, ''is under reliable surveillance.'' Officials at the flight club where Mr. Rust rented the plane were equally at a loss about the motive. The club's president, Helmut Gass, said the pilot would likely lose his flying permit and be charged the equivalent of $25,000 for the return of the Cessna to Hamburg. Began to Fly at Age of 17 According to his mother, Mr. Rust began taking flying lessons two years ago, at 17, while working as a bank apprentice. He later quit that job and began work as a data processor for an electronics company to find more time for his hobby. The youth hoped that his long flight around Scandinavia would help him in his plan to obtain a commercial pilot's license. ''It will break his heart,'' Mrs. Rust said, when asked how her son would react a revocation of his permit. ''It will be the end of a dream.

He lived for flying. He was a natural talent.'' Flying was expensive. Beyond the rental costs for aircraft, the entry fee for membership in the club is the equivalent of $275, and yearly dues are $130. To save money, Mr. Rust lived at home in the family's four-room apartment, sharing a bedroom with his 15-year-old brother, Ingo. Mrs. Rust said the family heard radio reports, which she rebutted, that her son had been accompanied by a woman and that political pamphlets, perhaps appeals for peace, were on board the plane. ''He had little time for girlfriends,'' Mrs. Rust said. ''Flying was his life. He was alone, and only had his luggage with him.'' She said her son's aircraft had seating for only one person, since he had removed three of the plane's four seats for extra luggage space and to accommodate additional fuel tanks that extended the plane's flying time by about two hours, to eight hours at normal cruising speeds. In Bonn, the Foreign Ministry said its diplomats in Moscow had not been able to arrange a meeting with Mr. Rust since he was taken from Red Square by Soviet security officials.

Map showing Rust's route from Hamburg to Moscow via Iceland (NYT)

Question: Where did German teenager Matthias Rust land his small plane in 1987?
Answer: Red Square