Zdeněk Mikš

”I was watching the guard, if he would pursue the second crew, which was already rolling to a runaway. But he turned back to hangars where his fellow was handcuffed. Maybe he wanted to make a phone call for reinforcement. At first I have tried to accelerate the plane but the engine didn’t react. I would take off with the dead friends. I would not be able to get them out of the plane on my own, so I would have to fly with them to the West Germany. Than I have tried to pull out my bag but everything was covered with Heda’s blood anyway. So I left the stuff in the plane. I managed to catch the second plane standing ready on the runaway. I told them what had happened, that Vlasta and Heda were shot to death and I was seriously injured. Guys answered they were full, accelerated and took off. I struggled from the aerodrome to a nearby town Vysoké Mýto, where I knew one girl. I wanted to ask her for help, to help me find a doctor who would treat my wound and I could disappear afterwards. I really managed to reach the town and she took me to an old doctor. He treated my wound but than he said it was a shot wound and he had to report it to police. I asked him not to do this: that we had never seen each other at all, but he refused my suggestion and picked up the phone. So I quickly left for the town. But there I was nabbed by police immediately. They escorted me to a hospital. The interrogation started.”

“In the first days of May in 1949 Vlastimil Klenovský, my class fellow who was also expelled from the military academy, rang at my door Sunday morning, He told me there is a possibility to seize two airplanes in order to emigrate. Of course I agreed. The situation in our country was hopeless. The communists hold me by the throat. I was not alone in such a situation. Thousands of Czechs were persecuted. So we agreed on the plan. I think it was on 10th May when we had a meeting with few friends in Prague. Jan Horníček had been working at same aerodrome in Choceň as Vlasta had. They had been working as mechanics there and were able to determine the situation on the ground. In Prague we met also Valášek and Nový and settled the details. We discussed the question of weapons too, because the aerodrome was guarded by two policemen. One gun had Vlasta Klenovský, another one Mirek Nový. We determined the day of action on midnight 12th and 13th of May. Klenovský depicted the task as easy as a flight for holidays on Canaries: ‘we will get on board and take off’. The guns were to be used to deter the guards only. Klenovský and Horníček knew both policemen personally from the aerodrome. Klenovský predicted they would be ok, because they are just about to retire.”

“The second plane successfully took of, but as I found out later, some altimeter failure had occurred. Near the town of Sušice over Mountains Šumava they flew along some valley which led the plane into heavy clouds. They had made several attempts to fly trough the clouds just according the board indicators before, but without success, so they decided to try the valley. When they realized the valley ends in cloud too, they made a U-turn in which the plane grazed the ground and crashed. It was broken to pieces. The pilot Nový suffered a serious head injury and broke his leg. He was sitting on the side which hit the ground. He got the biggest blow. He remained unconscious and suffered some internal injury too. Jaroslav Valasek broke his wrist as he hit a dashboard but he fell out of the plane. Honza Horníček sitting on the backseat was the lucky man. He went off the cockpit without any injury. He fall down to the ground and the only thing he ‘suffered’ was that he left his boots in the plane. Valášek and Horníček had thought Nový is dead – he was unconscious – and decided to proceed towards the state borders which were not far away. Some locals even helped them to find the way. But they were detained by an armed “warrener” at the borders. He handed them over to the State Security. The interrogation started.”

“In the meantime the others had to open the hangars. In one stood an old plane, but when we have opened the second hangar we were shocked! Just behind the gate stood a caterpillar vehicle, behind it a plane without wings and only the third behind was our plane. We three had to fill up the tanks: from a barrel to a bucket, from the bucket to a can and only then into the airplane tanks. Time was running quickly. The shooting had happened, so we didn’t know how long it could take before someone would appear. Finally we all together – six people – with an inconceivable force pushed out the caterpillar vehicle in front of the hangar, than the plane without wings and than our plane which was designated for me, Vlasta and Heda.”

“We have finished filling of the tanks. Everything was all right. Horníček, Nový and Valášek boarded one plane, I, Vlasta Klenovský and Heda the second one. Vlasta was a pilot, I was a navigator. I took care of maps. Heda was sitting behind us. However, we didn’t know that the guard had asked Heda to soften his shackles because of pain. And she had done it...! When we were already sitting in the cockpit, Vlasta on my side and Heda behind us, Vlasta fastened his seatbelt and I wanted to do the same. But there was some problem with mine – I believe in destiny – I was not able to fasten it. I decided to do it later. I was closing the cockpit and thought: everybody here could kiss my ass now! In this very moment a tragedy started. Suddenly I have heard a crack, like from an exhaust pipe. Then I have heard Heda saying: ‘Vlasta, did he shot you?’ I have turned to him, but I just saw how his head dropped and he remained stuck in the seatbelts. As I had slightly turned I had caught a sight of the guard standing behind the cockpit aiming the rifle at me. I ducked down swiftly which was possible because of my previous troubles with the seatbelt. As a result one of my vertebras is shot trough. The bullet changed its trajectory in my shoulder joint, ripped my lungs and stopped just over my diaphragm. It has remained there until now. I have been pretending I was dead. The guard speedily shot Heda. She just gave a short death rattle and this was her end. Her last words were: ‘Vlasta, did he shot you?’”