On May 28, 1987, 19-year-old pilot from West Germany Matthias Rust entered Soviet airspace in a small „Cesna“ plane without hindrance and landed on Red Square in Moscow. He was immediately detained and was not released until August 3, 1988.
He told the arriving KGB officers that he wanted to speak with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
As crazy as this story may seem, the circumstances surrounding the events of May 28, 1987 are much more incredible:
On this day, the Soviet Union celebrates Border Guard Day.
And it was precisely on the professional holiday of those who have to guard the state border that a 19-year-old German youth made a mockery of the entire Soviet air defense (AVO).
However, experts recall that in the late 1980s it was fashionable among the chairmen of the Soviet collective farms had small planes. They were used for tourist tours with the Kremlin dignitaries.
The map shows that during part of the flight it was taken as a training plane.
Rust himself takes a short break before flying to Moscow.
Mikhail Gorbachev is so angry that he declares: "If a plane can fly over Soviet territory undisturbed and not be noticed at all, this shows how poorly our air defense works". Shortly afterwards, the Minister of War, the Chief of the Air Force and 300 other officers were immediately dismissed.
In practice, two fighter jets were raised on alert and after intercepting the „Chesna“ Matthias Rust was released from prison 18 months later after the then German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher personally intervened on his behalf. Muscovites began to joke about the incident and began to call Red Square Sheremetyevo No. 3 (Sheremetyevo 1 and 2 are airports near Moscow).