Mathias Rust - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Because Rust's flight seemed to be a blow to the authority of the Soviet regime, it was the source of numerous jokes and urban legends. For a while after the incident, Red Square was jokingly referred to by Muscovites as Sheremetyevo-3. (Sheremetyevo-1 and -2 are two major airports near Moscow.) At the end of 1987, the police radio code used by law enforcement officers in Moscow was allegedly updated to include a code for an aircraft landing.

Very soon after the incident, SubLogic, the original publishers of the Flight Simulator franchise, issued a scenery disk that expanded the original program's coverage area to include Eastern Europe. A challenge in the program was to land in Red Square as Rust had just done.

In 1987 the West German band Modern Trouble released a single titled Fly to Moscow that celebrates "modern rebel Mr. Rust, he showed the world Moscow or bust" and encouraging everyone to "fly to Moscow and land there if you dare".

The American band Wampeters included a song on their Hey Judas CD that celebrates Rust as a "hero or a scourge."

Estonian President Lennart Meri named his wolfhound in honor of Rust.

The final track of the 2004 album La Increíble Aventura (The Incredible Adventure) by Spanish band Migala is called "Lecciones de Vuelo con Mathias Rust" ("Flying Lessons With Mathias Rust").

The 2008 Norwegian film The Man Who Loved Yngve features the fictional punk rock Mathias Rust Band, headed by the character Jarle Klepp. The band is actually composed of songwriters John Erik Kaada and Geir Zahl from Kaizers Orchestra, along with the screenwriter and author of the novel the film is based on, Tore Renberg.