Mathias Rust considered as a domestic training plane defying regulations, and was issued least priority. Around 7:00 p.m. Rust appeared above Moscow. He had initially intended to land in the Kremlin, but he reasoned that landing inside, hidden by the Kremlin walls, would have allowed the KGB to arrest him and deny the incident. Therefore, he changed his landing spot to Red Square. Heavy pedestrian traffic did not allow him to land there either, so after circling about the square one more time, he was able to land on Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge by St. Basil's Cathedral. A later inquiry found that trolleybus
Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land chase plane is also visible. There are strong similarities to the novel "Orbit" by Thomas Block (1982), whose "Star Streak" aircraft was jet-and-rocket powered and intended for high-atmospheric flight, only to end up in space. However, there are also important differences. In "Orbit", the failure to shut down engines, requiring entry into space lest it burn up, was deliberate sabotage rather than accident; the aircraft returns without Shuttle assistance "ploughing" the way; and the Shuttle mission sent to bring the passengers oxygen fails to launch at all. "The New York Times" said "Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land" was "...