Mathias Rust returns to Helsinki-Malmi Airport in May

Friends of Malmi Airport
Press release 3 May 2016

Mathias Rust returns to Helsinki-Malmi Airport in May

On the 28th of May 1987, Helsinki-Malmi Airport was the starting point for an audacious unauthorized flight through the Iron Curtain by Mathias Rust, an idealistic West German teenager. His “peace flight” to Moscow’s Red Square made headlines around the world and contributed to the ending of the Cold War. Now, 29 years later, Mr. Rust returns to the starting point of his astonishing flight as Guest of Honor at the Helsinki-Malmi Fly-In on 27-29 May 2016.

Mr Rust will be landing at Helsinki-Malmi Airport in a Cessna 172 in the evening of Friday the 27th approximately at 5pm, and the press conference will take place on Saturday 28th of May at 11am EET.

The fly-in is organized by the Friends of Malmi Airport association, and everyone is welcome. Especially aviators from around the world are invited to participate in this occasion that is organized in unique Helsinki-Malmi Airport. Celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, it is one of the most authentic still active pre-WWII international airports left in the world and the second-busiest airport in Finland by operations. In March 2016, Europe’s leading cultural heritage organization Europa Nostra selected it as one of Europe’s Seven Most Endangered Cultural Heritage Sites.

Unfortunately, the airport is threatened by City of Helsinki’s plan to turn it into a residential area in the early 2020’s. The fly-in is organized to raise awareness of this threat and the airport’s vast opportunities as the free-schedule general aviation airport of the Finnish capital.

Images:

Mathias Rust (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/4134Mathias_Rust.JPG