Nexus - 0102 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page 5 of 46

Page 5 of 46
Nexus - 0102 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

No aircraft are allowed to fly over central Moscow, whose three airports are located a good distance from the city, which is guarded by anti-aircraft guns and ballistic mis- siles. No other aircraft has ever landed in Red Square. Soviet military intelligence offi- cers have been questioning Rust for months to find how he managed to avoid detection during his 900km flight from Finland. TS aa? WHALE & DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER An independent group set up in 1985 “It was no more than three metres above the ground, tops,” reported one American tourist who ran for cover with over 300 others when the plane circled overhead. “People were ducking all over the place.” Rust climbed from the cockpit and said in English; “I’ve flown in as a fighter for peace. I’m a fighter for peace.” He talked with tourists and signed a few autographs as chil- dren climbed over the white plane before he and a female companion were arrested by dumbfounded security men. “It appears this involves a pilot who has made a [navigational] mis- take”, said a West German govern- ment spokesman. The President of Aero-Club Hamburg, who own the rented Cessna, said Rust’s hopes of becoming a professional pilot were “no longer possible. He... will notbe allowed to fly again.” A teenage West German pilot not only flew his single-engine Cessna from Iceland to Moscow, landing opposite the Kremlin in Red Square, but he wasn’t noticed by the Rus- sians until after he had landed. Nineteen year old Mathias Rust left Hamburg ina rented Cessna on May 13th. After flying to Iceland (where police searched his plane for hawk eggs which conservationists suspected him of smuggling) Rust flew via Norway and Finland, where he was spotted flying toward the Soviet border by a Finnish air- rescue centre on May 29th. Flying in broad daylight through heavily protected Soviet airspace he arrived undetected in Red Square around 7pm, circled three times and landed on cobblestones next to the wall of the Kremlin. vs * AMAL RUE BUYER WELLE UVEL JUU UUIEL ~