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
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