A guest from Sweden in the airspace of the Kõpu peninsula
September 19, 1981. A 35-year-old Swede with aviation papers had kicked off Långbro Psychiatric Hospital and asked for a plane at Bromma Airport to make a few detours over Stockholm. In fact, he wanted to travel to Estonia. The Swede had ended up in a mental hospital with a knife after attacking her mother. Before that, a Polish woman had killed him. At home, the Swede had met an Estonian abroad, who told him beautiful stories about Estonia. Thus, he had an irresistible desire to live, work and also treat his illness in Estonia.
On the day when a small Swedish plane flew to Hiiumaa, the air force stationed in Haapsalu held a joint exercise with the border guard. Probably because, considering the invader to be an imitation of the enemy, he was not given much attention at Ristna's radar station: the military recorded his appearance on the radar, reported it to his superiors, and continued to perform other combat missions. It so happened that Cessna Skyhawk reached the west coast of Hiiumaa without hindrance, where it was finally noticed by a conscript guarding the border guard observation tower.
The plane landed on Vilima meadow. The Swede spent a few days in the Kärdla command post, then was taken by a border guard helicopter to Tallinn and from there to Leningrad, where he was handed over to the Swedish consul, who in turn sent him back home with a neurologist from Stockholm.
The responsible Soviet refugees in Hiiumaa finally showed ingenuity and turned an embarrassing incident that reduced their fighting ability to their advantage. The border guard wrote a heroic story about how the Swedish flight was under constant control, and a grandiose operation was launched with the people and the local population to catch him.
The plane was returned to Sweden. The famous flight of the German Mathias Rusti to Moscow through the iron-guarded Soviet air defense system took place seven years later.
Further reading: http://www.mil.hiiumaa.ee/pv/Noukogude_ piirivalve_Hiiumaal_1940-1993-3.pdf
Related objects
Ristna coastal battery no.42 and radar station
The area between the Southern Cape of Ristna and Kalana Port in Hiiumaa is tightly packed with military objects. As the structures of different eras and military units are randomly scattered, you can only wonder about the function of several objects. After the battery was closed down in 1960, an early warning radar company moved to the base from North Ristna. In 1986 large-scale work began: a two-storey 16-apartment block for officers remained incompleted, a foundation of barracks was completed and the brick-laying of walls had started. The block of flats is still standing, the barracks have been demolished to their foundations. From 1979 a department of making aluminium spoons operated in Ristna base. It was meant to keep the officers’ wifes busy working but later it was employing some local people as well.
A border guard technical observation post was located in direction of Kalana Port, by now it has been demolished.
The 130mm four-weapon armed battery completed in 1940 was situated half a kilometre South of its present location. You can identify the craters of two gun emplacements, the parapets and bolt circles. Very little is known about the operations of the battery in 1941. Allegedly the crew blew up the guns after running out of ammunition and retreated to Tahkuna.
After the war the battery was opened. In 1945 three 127- mm warship guns of US origin were installed on temporary positions.
The four surviving ferroconcrete gun blocks were constructed in the 1950s. This is the only battery of such design in Hiiumaa. The circular gun emplacement is surrounded by a closed gallery with two long corridors stretching out from it, lined with ammunition depots. The length of a gun block is ca 60 metres and as there are only a couple of metres between the corridor entrances, it was possible to move from one end of the fire position to the other along concrete corridors in a hidden, safe manner. The ferroconcrete fire control tower was completed in 1953 with artillery radars and an optical 6-metre range finder installed in it. The tower is in a better condition than the one in Tahkuna, although a couple of original metal staircases have disappered and have been replaced by temporary wooden ladders. The rest of the buildings of the battery (ammunition depots, power station, machine gun bunkers) are in a relatively good condition and dry, overgrown, though. A remarkable amount of equipment, shelves, ventilation pipelines, original metal doors and shutters of the battery have survived.
The battery was closed down in 1960, after that an early warning radar company moved here from North Ristna resulting in the construction of massive concrete hangars and radar hills. Some of the battery buildings (ammunition depots, a power station) were used by the early warning radar company as well, some reconstruction was done and some entrances were walled in. One gun emplacement was filled with earth. The command post and the sauna also originate from the battery era. A dummy radar had been installed on the Cape of North Ristna. In 1976 a concrete helicopter pad was completed.
