A flight of hope
Ever since I read this article yesterday, I have been wondering what I was doing 25 years ago. Whatever it was, I certainly was not piloting my small plane over 500 miles across partially hostile airspace to make a point about world peace and international relations. Even now Matthias Rust’s adventure reads like something out of an adventure comic. Equipped with only a map, a sleeping back, a life jacket and a motorcycle crash helmet the 17-year old flew past an air defence system of 2,250 fighter jets and 10,000 surface to air missiles to land on the edge of Red Square in Moscow. In his own words ”I thought every human on this planet is responsible for some progress and I was looking for an opportunity to take my share in it.” He ended up imprisoned in Lefortovo prison in Moscow for 14 months, and suffered ill health as a consequence. Twenty-five years on he does not regret what he did.
I’m sure the jury is still out on how much difference his flight made. However, it continues to inspire as an example of a mouse that roared. Twenty-five years on, as Heather Small would put it “what have you done today to make you feel proud”?