Hijacking to Escape Communism | Tales From the Bottle

after the defeat of the nazis in world war ii germany was split up amongst the allies and occupied for the next several decades however this division would give rise to a new war the cold war as the allies in the west watched east germany become a communist satellite state for the soviet union here in the good old west we've all heard tales of oppressed soviet citizens fleeing communism and risking their lives to escape to our capitalist utopias and this story will be no different well except for the fact that it's about the first mass hijacking event in history these people were so desperate they orchestrated a coordinated hijacking of three commercial airliners nowadays hijackings have kind of a bad rap you know ever since that thing happened osama bin laden you can kiss my royal irish fans but i promise you everyone can admire this one well unless you're a dirty commie our story takes us to communist czechoslovakia in 1950 having been occupied by the nazis during the war czechoslovakia was home to a number of fighter pilots who had escaped and joined the british royal air force to fight with the allies interesting tidbit of history there were several czechoslovak raf squadrons on returning to czechoslovakia after the war these pilots found themselves in a bit of a sticky situation you'd think they'd be regarded as heroes but by 1948 the communist party seized control with the backing of the soviet union and these pilots were now seen as having a proven history of western ties and sympathies in the eastern bloc you needed that like you needed a hole in the head this brings us to our protagonists vit anger ladislav svetlik and aldrich dolegal three ex-raf pilots now employed by the czechoslovakia state airline the state airline employed roughly 130 ex-raf pilots due to their skill set but they were seen as politically unreliable and were slowly being replaced by freshly trained pilots who supported communism once the ex-raf pilots were no longer useful they could expect a visit from the czechoslovak secret police the stb anger svetlik and dolochial saw this coming and decided to escape before they found themselves out of a job and into a gulag the fact that the three of them were all pilots with the state airline presented them with a unique opportunity and together they planned their escape there were a number of immediate problems coordinating a hijacking of this scope was going to require a lot more people on board with the plan also the men all had families who they obviously didn't want to leave behind but a pilot's family boarding a flight would set off immediate alarm bells why because these types of hijackings had happened before in fact hijackings out of the eastern block and into the west were a lot more frequent than you might think tolhal himself had one of his flights hijacked by an ex-raf pilot in 1948 who really couldn't make this [ __ ] up after a year of secret of planning the men were ready there were 26 involved in the conspiracy including the men themselves family trusted friends and other pilots and crew the men met together in a cafe at a prague airport to finalize the details that evening and getter would be flying to verno svetlick to ostrava and dolhal to bratislava the next morning the return flights were all within hours of each other and so on their journey back to prague they would each make a break for the nearby erding u.s air base in west germany erding was close enough to prague that the pilots could fly there without arousing the passengers suspicions dolhal knew this because this was where he had been forced to land on his previous adventure some family members would simply board alternate pilots planes while some others would attempt to board under their maiden names each person would pack no more luggage than was enough for an overnight flight after all it'd be a bit strange to bring all your family heirlooms on a two-day round trip and so the game was on the pilots flew to their respective cities and on the morning of the 24th of march 1950 they each began their flight to freedom each pilot flew a douglas dc-3 anger was the co-pilot on the first plane which left brno at 6 35 gmt the captain was a man named kleznel under him flight engineer 2check and radio operator and navigator mraz mraz was in on the plan along with air hostess scorpiova of the 26 passengers on board eight were part of the escape group anger and razz would have to take control of the plane from klezner and to check and had smuggled revolvers through airport security a few minutes after takeoff scorpiova entered the cockpit and started a conversation with kleznel to distract him and get her left his seat and locked the cabin door tuck was in his work compartment behind the flight deck as was mraz who drew his gun on him and the two men bound and gagged him in the storage compartment at the back of the cockpit anger rejoined kleznel who was still unaware anything had happened and took control of the plane kleznel a former raf pilot himself and a good friend of van getters asked him what the hell he was doing anger told klesnel his plan kleznel himself had secretly been planning his own escape ah sure look you might as well everyone's doing it the problem was klisnel still had family back in czechoslovakia so he couldn't take part in the escape when they landed he would have to return from germany and just hope he would get another chance he would inevitably be questioned about his role in the hijacking so he was tied up air hostess scorpiova returned to the cabin where she kept an eye on the passengers the majority of which were uninvolved in the plan among them were the airline's president a member of the communist party who was known to carry a gun the second aircraft piloted by svetlick left at the same time of 635 from ostrava his co-pilot was ex-raf kozak flight engineer haloda also xraf and radio operator and navigator braz swetlick's hijacking was anticipated to be the hardest as he was the only member of the crew taking part four of the 23 passengers were in on the plan including ex-raf papalka an off-duty pilot for the airline who would be assisting svetlick about 30 minutes into the flight swedlik put on the autopilot and left his seat saying he was going to the toilet passing through the cabin he winked at papalka which was his signal to enter the cabin being a pilot for the airline and a friend of co-pilot kozak he was welcome to sit down in svetlik's seat and chat returning to the cabin svetlick locked the door and turned off braz's radio putting a luger to his forehead and telling him not to be a hero bras was brought to the back he then prodded heloda in the back to get his attention and he too went to the back swedlik then repeated the same routine with co-pilot kozak realizing what was happening and the welcoming he would likely receive from the stb when this was all over kozak pleaded with fedlik not to leave him unscathed so it looked like he had put up a fight to stop the hijacking swedlik obliged the third aircraft left bratislava at 7 00 am dolce was the pilot all but one of the crew were ex-raf and were in on the plan and air hostess is also partaking as well as 6 of the 25 passengers seeing as there was no one that needed to be removed from the cockpit this would be the easiest hijacking if you could even call it that but not necessarily the easiest escape because his plane left later than the others dolhel was worried that the first two hijackings could have alerted the authorities especially once they'd broken radio contact as well as this the escaping passengers had over packed their bags like they had been explicitly told not to do the heavier load meant dolichal had to opt for less fuel still plenty to reach prague but maybe not enough for erding even less likely if authorities were made aware mid-flight and he had to fly evasively airport security seemed to be particularly interested in doliyan's flight checking passports and papers twice before boarding taking particular interest in one of the escaping passengers the mother of a figure skating champion who had fled to the west the month before but eventually the plane was permitted to fly unfortunately there was an armed stb man on board as the plane was taxiing the radio received an urgent message from the control tower the aircraft was to return to the airport terminal immediately the radio operator pretended there was interference on the radio and he couldn't hear then they hurried off the runway uh sorry i didn't quite get that cheap capitalist radio indeed comrade capitalist engineering what can you do enjoy your flight approaching irding the first plane contacts the airbase and informs them of the situation telling the us forces that they are seeking political asylum the airbase allows them to land the non-escaping passengers are pretty startled to see where they are including the airline president who begins shouting pulls his gun and heads for the cockpit he is disarmed and removed by us mps then the second plane arrives it lands without incident the third aircraft landing is followed by an outburst from the stb man on board mps inform the passengers of the situation and ask them to calmly leave the stb agent yells at his comrades not to give up the plane is still czechoslovak territory but outside his filthy capitalist dystopia and they can remain pure if they just stay on board they leave the agent dares the usmps to try to remove him from the plane they do of the 85 people on the planes 27 are seeking asylum including one who wasn't even originally in on the plans also been a fairly easy going chap his whole life has just been uprooted unexpectedly but he just rolls with it the other 58 do not seek asylum there may have been some among them who wanted to defect but simply couldn't leave their families back home under normal circumstances a hijacking would never be welcomed like this but this was the cold war the u.s accommodated the 27 defectors while deciding what to do with them and made plans for the rest to be repatriated while they kept them separately on the base they assigned some personnel to keep an eye on them and used it as an opportunity to gather intelligence about living conditions in communist czechoslovakia their meals in the canteen were plentiful and included some luxury foods like pineapples and bananas very unusual for people from czechoslovakia who had seen food shortages the u.s personnel overheard the hard-line communists of the group telling the rest that this was merely a capitalist ploy designed to trick them into staying in the west the u.s soon sends the 58 back to czechoslovakia who demand the 27 defectors be extradited for their crimes they are tried in their absence and the court sentences the crew members to death and the passengers to 25 years imprisonment the us refuses to hand them over the returning czechoslovaks are all questioned by the stb the crew members under great scrutiny captain kleznel co-pilot kozak and flight engineer holloda are all fired from czechoslovakia's state airline in 1951 kleznel and his family managed to successfully escape by crossing into west germany on foot in a similar border crossing heloda and four other ex-raf airmen along with their families are betrayed by an informant captured tried and imprisoned and that's our story for today truly incredible these men lived under both nazi and communist regimes and defied both that's just like the peak of what you can do as a human like when you die your soul is just stamped with all your achievements and these guys just have fought nazis and fought communists on there [ __ ] mine is just gonna have one stamp that says youtuber and that's not really a glowing accomplishment definitely in some dodgy [ __ ] company there but i suppose that all comes down to me it was my decision to be what i am now totally insignificant with the exception of making videos about greater men but no more of this no more letting the reins of destiny rest idly it's time i steered my life in a new direction time to be something more time to be born again goodbye boys i've got a plane to hijack [Music] i [ __ ] it anyway

Channel: Qxir

Views: 1,085,120

Keywords: czech airlines, hijacking, 1950, communism, communist, czechoslovakia, first ever, mass, Československé státní aerolinie, Vit Angetter, Ladislav Světlík, Oldřich Doležal, hijack, plane, planes, airline, cold war, escape, escaped, flight, freedom, irish, drawing, funny, explained

Id: NhYvDhUXAWA

Length: 13min 28sec (808 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 11 2020