"How a Teenager with a Cessna Helped Topple the Soviet Union" Topic

"Back in 1987, the world was a very different place. While the Soviet Union was on a crash course with destiny, the power the nation wielded–backed by a massive nuclear arsenal–had left it in a decades-long staring match with the United States.

Mutually Assured Destruction, a doctrine of military strategy that left the two nuclear powers in a stalemate President Ronald Reagan described as a "suicide pact," had left the world in an uneasy state of both peace and war simultaneously. And nowhere was this dichotomy more present than in the homes of residents of East and West Germany. The nation had been divided since the end of World War II, with NATO's Western powers in West Germany, and a Soviet puppet-state called the German Democratic Republic in the east.

By 1987, the wheels that would ultimately tear down the Berlin Wall dividing East and West Germany physically and ideological were already turning, and a young man named Mathias Rust was keen on playing his part in history. Like many young adults, Rust was increasingly politically minded. Unlike most 18-year-olds, he also had a pilot's license and access to a Cessna 172 airplane that had been modified by removing the rear seats for added fuel capacity…"
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Armand

I remember that!

He certainly did embarrass their air defence personnel and leadership.

(smile)

Armand

I remember that, at the time, I thought he was lucky…didn't know HOW lucky!
Wonder how similar acts would fare Post 9/11 ?

I imagine most would get thru, both in Russia, and even other modern, Western air defense systems.

Tracking aircraft, especially small ones, "down in the weeds" is very difficult, unless you have a modern AWACS system up in the sky to perform that function.

A lot of modern fighter aircraft do have look-down, shoot-down radars, but I imagine it remains to be seen how effective those are, especially against very slow-flying aircraft, which are harder to detect even with those.

Imagine the world reaction had they shot him down-A little egg on the face is easier to face than world condemnation at a time state bankruptcy was very real.-especially after KAL -007.

I've been in the army at that time. As you might have read there, he was spotted and intercepted multiple times, the thing was that we were never that bloodthirsty as the West was always trying to portrait us.
The pilots and radar operators were not 100% sure that it is an intruder plane, it was easier for them to imagine it as a friendly plane, they have not called top brass to get a direct order, as happened with South Korean liner, mistaken for a US spy plane.
Several high-ranking officers, including MoD lost their positions bcs they allowed the thing to happen – at that time it wasn't an attempt of Gorbachev to undermine the military, Central Committee was furious that the plane has got this far, and most thought that it should have been intercepted and grounded as soon as it entered Soviet airspace by all means necessary.
Sadly, taking into account terrorist acts and drone development he would be shot nowadays.