Mathias Rust

Three Surface-to-air missile battalions of 54th Air Defence Corps tracked him for some time, but failed to obtain permission to launch missiles at him.

All air defences were readied and two interceptors were sent to investigate.

At 14:48, near Gdov, MiG-23 pilot Senior Lieutenant A. Puchnin observed a white sport airplane similar to a Yakovlev Yak-12 and asked for permission to engage, but was denied.

The fighters lost contact with Rust soon after this.

While they were being directed back to him, he disappeared from radar near Staraya Russa.

West German magazine Bunte speculated that he might have landed there for some time, noting that he changed his clothes during his flight and that he took too much time to fly to Moscow considering his airplane's speed and the weather conditions.

Air defence re-established contact with Rust's plane several times but confusion resulted from all of these events.

The PVO system had shortly before been divided into several districts, which simplified management but created additional work for tracking officers at the districts' borders.

The local air regiment near Pskov was on maneuvers and, due to inexperienced pilots' tendency to forget correct IFF designator settings, local control officers assigned all traffic in the area friendly status, including Rust.

Near Torzhok there was a similar situation, as increased air traffic was created by a search and rescue operation.

Rust, flying a slow propeller-driven aircraft, was confused with one of the helicopters participating with the operation.

He was detected several more times and given false friendly recognition twice.

Rust was considered as a domestic training airplane defying regulations, and was assigned the least priority by air defense.

Around 19:00, Rust appeared above Moscow.

He had initially intended to land in the Kremlin, but he reasoned that landing inside, hidden by the Kremlin walls, would have allowed the KGB to arrest him and deny the incident.

Therefore, he changed his landing place to Red Square.

Mathias Rust (born 1 June 1968) is a German aviator known for his flight that ended with a landing near Red Square in Moscow on 28 May 1987.

A teenage amateur pilot, he flew from Helsinki, Finland, to Moscow, without authorization.

He was tracked several times by Soviet Air Defence Forces and civilian air traffic controllers, as well as Soviet Air Force interceptor aircraft.

The Soviet fighters did not receive permission to shoot him down, and his aeroplane was mistaken for a friendly aircraft several times.

He was later quoted as saying that he had the idea of attempting to reach Moscow even before the departure, and he considered the journey to Iceland (where he visited Hofdi House, the site of unsuccessful talks between the USA's and USSR's governments during October 1986) as a method of testing his piloting skills.

Also, 28 May 1987 was Border Guards Day, leaving many guards distracted.

He landed on Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, next to Red Square near the Kremlin in the capital of the USSR.

Rust said he wanted to create an "imaginary bridge" to the East, and that his flight was intended to reduce tension and suspicion between the two Cold War sides.

Rust was sentenced to four years in a general-regime labour camp for violation of border crossing and air traffic regulations, and for provoking an emergency situation upon his landing.

After 14 months in prison, he was pardoned by Andrei Gromyko, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and released.

Rust's flight through a supposedly impenetrable air defence system had a great effect on the Soviet military and resulted in the dismissal of many senior officers, including Minister of Defence Marshal of the USSR Sergei Sokolov and the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, former World War II fighter pilot ace Chief Marshal Alexander Koldunov.

The incident aided Mikhail Gorbachev in the implementation of his reforms, by allowing him to dismiss numerous military officials opposed to his policies.

Rust, aged 18, was an inexperienced pilot, with about 50 hours of flying experience at the time of his flight.

On 13 May 1987, Rust left Uetersen Airport, near Hamburg and his home town Wedel, in his rented Reims Cessna F172P, registration D-ECJB, which was modified by removing some of the seats and replacing them with auxiliary fuel tanks.

He spent the next two weeks travelling across northern Europe, visiting the Faroe Islands, spending a week in Iceland, and then visiting Bergen on his way back.

On 28 May 1987, Rust refuelled at Helsinki-Malmi Airport.

He told air traffic control that he was going to Stockholm, and took off at 12:21.

Immediately after his final communication with traffic control, he turned his plane to the east near Nummela, Vihti.

Air traffic controllers tried to contact him as he was moving around the busy Helsinki–Moscow route, but Rust turned off all his communications equipment.

Rust disappeared from the Finnish air traffic radar near Espoo.

Control personnel presumed an emergency and a rescue effort was organized, including a Finnish Border Guard patrol boat.

They found an oil patch near Sipoo where Rust had disappeared from radar observation, and conducted an underwater search but did not find anything.

Rust crossed the Baltic coastline over Estonia and turned towards Moscow.

At 14:29 he appeared on Soviet Air Defence Forces (PVO) radar and, after failure to reply to an Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) signal, was assigned combat number 8255.