15 July 1987 · Aircraft and balloons · Groß Glienicke, Kladow and the Sacrower See
18-year-old flies a light aircraft from Potsdam to RAF Gatow
On only his second solo flight, 18-year-old Thomas K. took off in a single-engine plane south of Potsdam and landed at the British airfield in Gatow.
Thomas K., 18, was unhappy with the political system in East Germany and wanted to join relatives in West Germany. He took off from an airfield south of Potsdam.
On 15 July 1987, on what was only his second solo flight, he flew a single-engine aircraft across the border and landed at the British military airfield at Gatow in West Berlin. According to the Chronik der Mauer, he got under all Soviet and East German radar controls.
The aircraft itself was later returned: British military personnel handed it back on the Glienicke Bridge on 5 August 1987.
Sources
Whose account is this? Told from historical research only.
Historians and memorials
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
Spotted an error, or know more about this story? Email us a correction or addition
Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “18-year-old flies a light aircraft from Potsdam to RAF Gatow”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/thomas-k-plane-to-gatow-1987/ (accessed [date]).
Related escapes
19 November 1986
Volkmar Kienöl and Klaus Kuschmierz try to glide to the Springer building
Two young men spent a night on the roof of a Leipziger Straße tower block beside two home-made hang gliders, planning to land in front of the Axel Springer building in West Berlin just 200 metres away. They came down short of the Wall.
20 December 1986
Failed motorised hang-glider escape near Potsdam
A 37-year-old toolmaker took off in a home-built motorised hang glider towards West Berlin, but poor visibility, disorientation and the cold forced him down in the GDR.
July 1987
Jens Bernhardt waits until his partner falls asleep and climbs the fence into Spandau
In July 1987 a young conscript border guard hid his sleeping tower partner's ammunition at 3 a.m., climbed down and pulled himself over the steel-mesh fence into Spandau with metal hooks. He later spoke publicly about how the shoot-to-kill order was applied.
8 March 1989
Winfried Freudenberg's fatal gas balloon flight
The last refugee to die at the Berlin Wall, as the Chronik der Mauer counts it: Winfried Freudenberg crossed into West Berlin in a home-made natural-gas balloon but was killed when it came down in Zehlendorf.
