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| Rust's rented Reims Cessna F172P landing in Moscow. (c)Rare Historical Photos |
On This Day In 1987, 18 year-old West German civilian pilot named Mathias Rust landed his Cessna in Moscow's Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge after taking off from Finland.
Luckily, the Soviets did not receive the word to shoot his aircraft down after he was mistakenly regarded as a friendly plane. Finnish air traffic controllers did their due diligence in contacting him but Rust turned off all communications.
When he was located in Moscow, he avoided landing inside the Kremlin for sensible reasons therefore changing his ending to the Red Square. With traffic at its peak, the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge was the only available place. He was arrested shortly after.
Rust said the intentions of this air-flight was to ease tensions and bring peace during the Cold War.
After gaining international fame, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison but later released after 14 months.
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