Call it naïveté, call it idealism, but West Berliner Mathias Rust felt a need for an “imaginary bridge” between East and West. After disarmament talks in Reykjavik, Iceland between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan broke down, Rust decided to take the bridge building upon himself, signing out his flight club’s airplane for a couple weeks, attaching auxiliary fuel tanks, bringing on board enough food and water for a long trip and – as a measure of last resort for when he’d enter Soviet airspace – grabbing a crash helmet. Then he took off, going first to Iceland, then Finland. And then Moscow.

On this day, September 2, in 1987, Mathias Rust went on trial in Russia for unlawful entry into the country and malicious hooliganism. Rust was convicted on all charges and sentenced to four years in prison. Recognizing that Rust posed no threat, he was afforded relative freedom during his incarceration and released less than year into his term.

Rust was spotted by Soviet air defenses immediately as he approached Soviet territory, and as he was not answering any radio transmission, several jets were scrambled to investigate. One mistook him for Soviet Yak plane, not noticing the West German tail insignia, which likely saved him from a shootdown. Rust made his way to Moscow untouched, and landed his plane in front of a stunned crowd in the middle of Red Square.