It Has Now Been 25 Years Since the ‘Red Square Landing’

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Could you imagine if tomorrow a small single-engine plane landed on the White House lawn? Well, imagine a German teen landing on Red Square at the heart of Soviet Moscow. For those of us old enough to remember, it was stunning. Stunning that he did it … and stunning that he wasn’t shot on sight.

In 1987 a West German teenager shocked the world, by flying through Soviet air defences to land a Cessna aeroplane in Red Square. He was jailed for more than a year – but a quarter of a century later, he has no regrets.

Here are some more thoughts on how this impacted the changes in the USSR:

– Rust bypasses Soviet air defence system of 2,250 aircraft and 10,000 surface-to-air missiles
– Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev holds an emergency meeting of the ruling Politburo – it criticises air defence ministers for carelessness and lack of decisiveness
– Defence Minister Sergei Sokolov is forced to retire – air defence chief Alexander Koldunov is sacked
– About 150 officers are removed from their posts

It is an amazing bit of history that has all but disappeared from public knowledge – as it is very little is discussed outside of history classes about the Soviet Union in general.

But I pose the question again: What would happen if a single-engine plane landed on the White House lawn? Would the plane be shot down? Would the pilot be shot on sight? What would be the reaction in the ‘court of public opinion’?
Source: BBC via Neatorama

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About the Author

Michael Anderson
I have loved technology for as long as I can remember - and have been a computer gamer since the PDP-10! Mobile Technology has played a major role in my life - I have used an electronic companion since the HP95LX more than 20 years ago, and have been a 'Laptop First' person since my Compaq LTE Lite 3/20 and Powerbook 170 back in 1991! As an avid gamer and gadget-junkie I was constantly asked for my opinions on new technology, which led to writing small blurbs ... and eventually becoming a reviewer many years ago. My family is my biggest priority in life, and they alternate between loving and tolerating my gaming and gadget hobbies ... but ultimately benefits from the addition of technology to our lives!

5 Comments on "It Has Now Been 25 Years Since the ‘Red Square Landing’"

  1. “What would happen if a single-engine plane landed on the White House lawn? Would the plane be shot down?”

    I will go out on a limb here and say that if a plane were to land on the White House lawn, it would not be shot down 🙂

    • hehe … very nice 🙂

      • Honestly though, I would imagine there being another scandal with the Secret Service (supposedly there are agents armed with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles), the FAA (for not passing along information quickly enough, since the area around the White House is restricted air space), and the Air Force (for not responding in time).

  2. Kirschen Seah | December 14, 2012 at 7:43 am |

    In 1994, a light plane did crash on the White House lawn… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Eugene_Corder

    • I did know that and should have phrased it differently … because we don’t live in the same country as we did in 1994. Our level of immediate violent reactions and rampant militarism has escalated out of control in the last decade … so I just don’t know.

Comments are closed.