
The 18-year-old who landed a Cessna in Soviet-era Moscow's Red Square - mbrubeck
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2011/06/03/npf-infiltration/
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VladRussian
it happened on the day which was back then (and still is) the official
celebration day of the Soviet Union (now Russian) border and airspace defense
forces.

Everybody who knows Russia and its military easily understands why nobody was
able to take a decision, why the plane was several times lost from the radars,
mistaken for something else, the target tracking codes assigned inside the
airspace defense system to the plane matched and mismatched with other
airborne targets / objects in the airspace.... It is a very good luck (which
God sends to drunks and children :) that that day in that chaos no other
planes were shot down ... :) (google for "Ukrainian missile Sibur Tu-154 2001"
- how it happens when luck is missing)

~~~
patrickod
funny when I google for that your comment is now the top result. I presume
this article is the event that you're referring to
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia_Airlines_Flight_1812>

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jordanb
Some nerd corrections:

He flew a Cessna 172, which is an all-aluminum four-seat aircraft. It's not
fabric-covered as the article describes, nor is it the size of a Ford Fiesta.
And 172's cruise speed is ~120 kph, which is considerably faster than a Fiesta
as well.

~~~
Nick_C
> ~120kph

(a typo?) ~120mph, about 200kph. Cruise is supposedly 110 knots, although I've
yet to fly one that was happy at that; more often about 105 knots IME.

~~~
mhd
It's not a pleasant experience, but a Ford Fiesta can reach 200kph. (And it
would've been legal for Rust, at least at home).

~~~
Vivtek
This is actually not quite true, unless you have a very long downhill slope or
a Fiesta at the upper end of the bell curve - I was driving a Ford Fiesta in
Germany at the very same time Rust was flying his plane to Red Square. Top
speed, and I mean, pedal to the metal on a straight stretch of empty Autobahn,
was maybe 180 kph. At 200 kph I'm pretty sure you'd get something like the
opening sequence of Serenity. That last 20 kph is like the sound barrier on
those things.

My Fiesta was special, though; I had broken a key off in the starter switch,
so I had to remove the switch entirely (fortunately the theft-proof bolts had
vibrated loose, probably at 180 kph). Crossing the Swiss border once while
starting the engine with a screwdriver caused a very, very unamused reaction.

The outside rearview mirror had also rusted off. I was stopped by the Polizei
once and he sternly informed me that I needed a rearview mirror - I told him I
did: it was in the back seat. He laughed, but said that unless it was mounted
on the car, the car didn't conform with its definition. (No, really, that's
the way German law works.) I promised him I'd buy a new one the next day, and
he waved me on. And I did, too.

All in all, the adventures of a redneck in Europe can be fun to recount.

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mhd
And later in life he stabbed a nurse, did some shoplifting and (IIRC) is now a
professional poker player. It's hard when you reach your zenith that early.

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huhtenberg
Do you guys know Soviets' answer to the Rust incident?

[http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/05/world/pilotless-soviet-
jet...](http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/05/world/pilotless-soviet-jet-crosses-
europe-before-crashing.html)

They never did mention it explicitly, but the official Soviet news back then
were full of thinly veiled innuendos that it was "for Rust".

~~~
varjag
You read too much into that. Here's a bit of an inside view.

My father was a Soviet tank forces officer at the time. When they were given a
brief of the incident in the morning, he remarked "this surely must be
zampolit at work" (a deputy political officer, CPSU hand in the army). Dad got
reprimanded for that right in place, by, well, another zampolit.

So some days after, the pilot was identified as deputy political officer to
the airforce division commander. He forgot to turn out afterburn after the
take off, misread that as engine failure, shat his pants and ejected.

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dennisgorelik
If you want to be famous it helps to be crazy.

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dublinclontarf
Reminds me of war nerds writing about the use of such planes against
"advanced" airforces in Africa by a Swedish guy. And that simpsons episode
where Bob steals the write flyer.

"Bogey is too slow to intercept, permission to get out and walk?"

~~~
bergie
This was the Biafran civil war. The Swedish guy smuggled the planes in by
buying them for some (IIRC) Moroccan flight school. They were mostly used for
bombing runs.

~~~
dmitri1981
I think this is the article :
[http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7490&...](http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7490&IBLOCK_ID=35)

~~~
bergie
Yep, though they were some small Saab planes, not Cessnas

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olegious
I think the reason he was able to succeed was because he was using such a
small, non-militaristic plane. I'm sure an invasion force would've been met
with much stiffer resistance.

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ErikCorry
The headline from the Guardian was one of their masterstrokes:

"Rust tarnishes Soviet ring of steel"

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jberryman
This was completely new to me, thanks!

