Notable Incidents
- 26 September 1986 Mihai Smighelschi, a 21-year old student of the Romanian Air Force Academy, used an L-39ZA Albatros training plane to fly to Turkey and request political asylum. His aircraft was later recovered and onboard data recorders showed that he had flown no higher than 150 m (490 ft) above ground at 700 km/h (430 mph) to evade radar detection. Smighelschi had less than 100 hours at the time, including high-school glider training, and less than 3 hours on the L-39ZA. Without satellite navigation or indeed any maps, he navigated a straight line over Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey using only ground marks and the memory of a map of Europe he had access to at the Academy. He eventually landed in Kirklareli, Turkey, on a street near a group of jeeps that seemed to have American insignia, breaking the front wheel and the nose of the plane.
- 24 January 2001 Atlas Air Founder, Chairman, and CEO Michael A. Chowdry was killed when his Czech L-39 jet trainer crashed into an open field near Watkins, Colorado, USA. Also killed was Wall Street Journal aerospace reporter Jeff Cole. Chowdry and Cole were making a planned flight from Front Range Airport.
Read more about this topic: Aero L-39 Albatros
Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or incidents:
“Every notable advance in technique or organization has to be paid for, and in most cases the debit is more or less equivalent to the credit. Except of course when it’s more than equivalent, as it has been with universal education, for example, or wireless, or these damned aeroplanes. In which case, of course, your progress is a step backwards and downwards.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)