Mathias Rust

Rust in a Moscow courtroom

Mathias Rust (born July 1968 in Wedel, Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany) is a German man known for his illegal landing near Red Square in Moscow in 1987. As an amateur aviator, he flew from Finland to Moscow, being tracked several times by Soviet air defence and interceptors, which never received permission to shoot him down, and several times mistaken for a friendly aircraft, he landed on Vasilevski Spusk next to Red Square near the Kremlin in the capital of the USSR.

Rust's intentions, as he stated, were to create an "imaginary bridge" to the East, and he has claimed that his flight was intended to reduce tension and suspicion between the two Cold War sides.^[1] Rust's successful flight through a supposedly impregnable air defense system had a great impact on the Soviet military and led to the firing of many senior officers, including Defence Minister Sergei Sokolov. The incident enabled Mikhail Gorbachev to speed his reforms (by removing numerous military officials opposed to him), and reduced the prestige of the Soviet military among the population, thus helping bring an end to the Cold War.^[1]

Flight profile

After leaving Uetersen near Hamburg on May 13, Rust refueled his rented Reims Cessna F172P D-ECJB in the morning of May 28, 1987 at Helsinki-Malmi Airport. He told air traffic control that he was going to Stockholm, but right after his final communication with traffic control he turned his plane to the east. Traffic controllers tried to contact him as he was moving around the busy Helsinki-Moscow route, but Rust turned off all communications equipment aboard.^[1][2]

Rust disappeared from the Finnish traffic control radar near Sipoo.^[1] Traffic control presumed an emergency, and a rescue effort was organized, including a Finnish Border Guard patrol boat. They found an oil patch near the place where Rust disappeared from radar and performed an underwater search with no results. Rust was later charged about $100,000 for this effort. The origin of the oil patch remains unknown.

In the meantime, Rust crossed the Baltic coastline in Estonia and turned towards Moscow. At 14:29 he appeared on air defense radar and, after failure to answer to an IFF signal, was assigned combat number 8255. Three SAM divisions tracked him for some time, but failed to obtain permission to launch at him. All air defenses were brought to readiness and two interceptors were sent to investigate. At 14:48 near the city of Gdov one of the pilots observed a white sport plane similar to a Yakovlev Yak-12 and asked for permission to engage, but was denied.^[1]

Soon after, the fighters lost contact with Rust, and while they were directed back to him, he disappeared from radar near Staraya Russa. The then-West German magazine Bunte speculated that he might have landed there for some time, citing that he changed his clothes somewhere during his flight, and that he took too much time to fly to Moscow considering his plane's speed and weather conditions.

Air defense re-established contact with Rust's plane several times, but confusion followed all of these events. The PVO system had shortly before been divided into several districts, which simplified management but created additional overhead 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.^[1]

Mathias Rust's Cessna 172, resting in Red Square some time after his landing.

Near Torzhok there was a similar situation, as increased air traffic was created by a rescue effort for an air crash that had happened the previous day. Rust, flying a slow propeller-driven aircraft, was confused with one of the helicopters taking part in the rescue. Afterwards, he was spotted several more times, but given false friendly recognition twice; he was considered as a domestic training plane defying regulations, and was issued least priority.^[1]

Around 7:00 p.m. Rust appeared above Moscow's center. He had initially intended to land in the Kremlin, but changed his mind - he reasoned that landing inside, hidden by the Kremlin walls, would have allowed the KGB to simply arrest him and deny the incident. Therefore, he changed his landing spot to the Red Square.^[1] Heavy pedestrian traffic did not allow him to land there either, so after circling about the square one more time, he was able to land on a bridge by St. Basil's Cathedral. A later inquiry found that numerous wires normally strung over the bridge - which would have incidentally prevented his landing there - had been removed for maintenance that very morning, and were replaced the day after.^[1] After taxiing past the Cathedral he stopped about 100 meters from the square, where he was greeted by curious passersby. He was arrested soon afterwards.^[1]

Aftermath

Rust's trial started in Moscow on September 2, 1987. He was sentenced to four years following light regime terms for hooliganism, disregard of aviation laws and breaching of the Soviet border. He served his time at the Lefortovo Prison in Moscow. Two months after Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to sign a treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe, the Supreme Soviet ordered Rust released as a good will gesture to the west. He returned to West Germany on August 3, 1988.^[1]

William E. Odom, former director of the National Security Agency and author of The Collapse of the Soviet Military, says that Rust’s flight irreparably damaged the reputation of the Soviet military. This enabled Gorbachev to remove many of the strongest opponents to his reforms. The Soviet defense minister Sergei Sokolov and the air defense chief Alexandr Koldunov were fired along with hundreds of other officers. This was the biggest turnover in the Soviet military since Stalin’s purges fifty years earlier.^[1]

Later life

While doing his obligatory community service (Zivildienst) in a West German hospital in 1989, Rust stabbed a female co-worker who had rejected him. The injuries were life-threatening and he was sentenced to four years in prison for attempted murder and was released after having served fifteen months. ^[3]

In 1996 he became engaged to a daughter of a rich Indian tea merchant and converted to Hinduism.^[4]

In 2001 he was convicted for stealing a cashmere pullover and ordered to pay 10,000 marks; the sentence was later reduced to 600 marks.^[3] In 2005, he was convicted of fraud and had to pay €1,500 for stolen goods.^[3]

As of 2009 Rust describes himself as a professional poker player.^[5]

In popular culture

Because Rust's flight seemed to be a blow to the authority of the Soviet regime, it was the source of numerous jokes and urban legends.

Very soon after the incident, SubLogic, the original publishers of the Flight Simulator franchise, issued a scenery disk that expanded the original program's coverage area to include Eastern Europe. A challenge in the program was to land in Red Square like Rust had just done.^[6]

The American band Wampeters included a song on their Hey Judas CD that celebrates Mathias as a "hero or a scourge."^[7]

The French software house Cobra Soft published the videogame Cessna over Moscow for the Amstrad CPC computer, inspired by Rust.

Estonian President Lennart Meri named his wolfhound in honor of Rust.^[8]

The final track of the 2004 album La Increíble Aventura by Spanish band Migala is called Lecciones de Vuelo con Mathias Rust (Flying Lessons With Mathias Rust).^[9]

The 2008 Norwegian film The Man Who Loved Yngve features the fictional punk rock band Mathias Rust Band, headed by the character Jarle Klepp. The band is actually comprised of songwriters John Erik Kaada and Geir Zahl from Kaizers Orchestra, along with screenwriter and author of the novel the film is based on, Tore Renberg^[10][11].

In the media

Following the 20th anniversary of his flight on May 28, 2007, the international media interviewed Rust about the flight and its aftermath.

The Washington Post and German Bild both have online editions of their interviews. The most comprehensive video interview online is produced by The Danish Broadcasting Corporation. In their interview Rust in Red Square, recorded in May 2007, Mathias Rust gives a full account of the flight in English.

References

External links

• Rust in Red Square (English) about the flight and the aftermath. Interview clips are embedded in a flash presentation. (October 2007)
• TV Interview 2007 on YouTube English interview in Danish news cast eng/eng subs (May 28, 2007)
• Smithsonian's Air & Space Magazine: "The Notorious Flight of Mathias Rust" Comprehensive article about the flight and the political aftermath in Gorbachev's USSR (July 1, 2005)
• Guardian: interview with Mathias Rust
• Where Are They Now?: Mathias Rust
• Recent photo of Rust's plane in Japan
• Novaya Gazeta: РУСТ — ЭТО ПО-НАШЕМУ
• Washington Post: A Dubious Diplomat Washington Post article on Rust incident, aftermath, and Rust's life today. (May 27, 2007)
• Mathias Rust, fly to the hearth of USSR (By Jose Antonio Lozano - In Spanish)
• Danmarks Radio - "Rust in Red Square" interview, May 2007
• IMDB Entry

v • d • e ← 1986 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1987 1988→ Pan Am Flight 125 (March 10) — LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 (May 9) — Mathias Rust (May 28) — Philippine Airlines Flight 206 (June 27) — Northwest Airlines Flight 255 (August 16) — Thai Airways Flight 365 (August 31) — Ramada Inn Corsair crash (October 20) — Continental Airlines Flight 1713 (November 15) — South African Airways Flight 295 (November 28) — Korean Air Flight 858 (November 29) — Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 (December 7) — Alianza Lima air disaster (December 8) Bold indicates incidents resulting at least 50 deaths (current article is always in bold) Orange color indicates the deadliest incident in 1987