Mathias Rust

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Mathias Rust (born 1968) is a German pilot who, in 1987, at the age of 19, flew from Uetersen to Iceland and then via Norway and Finland to Moscow, eluding the Soviet air defences and landing on a bridge close to the Red Square near the Kremlin in the heart of the capital of the former USSR.

After leaving Uetersen on May 13 Rust refuelled his Cessna 172B (D-ECJB) in the morning of May 28th 1987 at Helsinki-Malmi Airport. He told air traffic control that he was going to Stockholm, but he turned his plane towards the east. Rust disappeared from the Finnish air space near Sipoo. He headed towards the Baltic coastline and turned towards Moscow. He flew into the Soviet Union on the national border guard's holiday. Rust flew straight towards Moscow and landed on a bridge close to Red Square. He was later arrested by officials of the KGB.

A few days after the landing, Mikhail Gorbachev took advantage of this unexpected event by replacing the defense minister Sergei Sokolov and anti-air defense commander Alexander Koldunov, a former WWII fighter ace (both of whom were opposed to glasnost and perestroika) with men who supported his policies. More than 2,000 officers (again, most of whom were opposed to Gorbachev's reform) lost their jobs. This move was critical in winning over the previously fiercely conservative and anti-reform military.

Rust's trial started in Moscow on September 2 1987. He was sentenced to four years in a labour camp following light regime terms for hooliganism, disregard of Aviation laws and infringement of the Soviet border. After a prison term of 432 days at the Lefortovo jail in Moscow, he was released on parole. He returned to West Germany on August 3, 1988 after long-term former secretary of state Andrei Gromyko, acting as president of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, signed the document that enabled Rust to regain his freedom.