Sorry, Zdeněk, We Are Full!

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In May 1949, a group of six young people tried to steal the planes from the airport in Choceň bacause they wanted to flee to the West Germany. After the gunfight the members of SNB (national police) who were guarding the airport were disarmed and tied. Within minutes, the refugees were sitting in the starting planes. Miroslav Nový, Jan Horníček and Jaroslav Valášek were aboard the first plane and in the second plane there were Zdeněk Mikš, Vlastimil Klenovský and Heda Prokopová. Suddenly one of the SNB members managed to untie the handcuffs. Of course, nobody expected that. Zdeněk Mikš remembers that moment: “All at once I heard some noise. It was like if the exhaust pipe cracks. And I heard Heda saying: ‛Vlastík, did he shoot you?’ I looked at Vlasta and saw only how his head descended; he got stuck in the straps. And as I turned myself slightly I saw the police officer standing behind the cockpit and pointing at me with his gun. I swiftly bent down and because I was not fastened I could crook. As a result he shot my vertebra through. The bullet changed its trajectory in my shoulder joint, ripped my lungs and stopped just over my diaphragm. It has remained there until now.” Despite his wounds, Mikš got to the first plane and wanted to get on, but its pilot Miroslav Nový took off without him. Finally even those who were on board of the stolen plane did not leave the country. Mikš, Nový, and Horníček were condemned to thirty years for high treason and theft, and Valášek was condemned to life imprisonment. During the court trial it was found out that Heda was the one who untied the cuffs of the SNB officer. Heda and Vlastimil Klenovský laid down their lives for that.

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Zdeněk Mikš

Zdeněk Mikš was born in Dvůr Králové nad Labem on 7th October in 1926. During the occupation of Czechoslovakia Mikš had attended a high school. In 1944 he was conscripted to a unit of „Technische Nothilfe". After the war in 1946 Mikš enlisted military air force and he studied at Air force military academy. Because of his anticommunist attitudes he was fired from the military service in November 1948. With a group of friends Mikš made an attempt to escape to the West in two civil aircrafts from the aerodrome Choceň in May 1949. Members of the group - Vlastimil Klenovský, Jaroslav Valášek, Jan Horníček, Miroslav Nový, Heda Prokopová and Zdeněk Mikš - seized two small aircrafts (type Sokol) in the middle of the night on 12th of May 1949. But just before taking off a tragedy had happened. Heda had treated overwhelmed aerodrome guard mercifully and before getting on board she had softened his shackles. When all six friends were already on board near the Mikš's aircraft the guard appeared with a rifle and shot to dead Klenovský and Prokopová. Mikš himself was seriously injured. But he was able to find a medical help in a near village, but the doctor reported him to police and Mikš was arrested. The second crew successfully took of but near the town of Sušice in Mountain Šumava the plane crashed. The pilot Nový was seriously injured; Valášek and Horníček were later detained while crossing the borders to Germany. On 31st of August in 1949 Valášek was sentenced to live imprisonment. Horníček, Nový and Mikš were sentenced to 30 years in prison. The first year Mikš was detained in Bory, than he was moved to Ilava prison in Slovakia. There he spent 18 months. In 1952 Mikš was transported to Jáchymov area to a punitive labor camp "L", where a tremendous hunger had ruled. In 1953 Mikš weighed only 48 kilograms. In the middle of 50's Mikš was moved again to another labor camp Bytíz. There he worked as a welder and a repairman. The State Security had tried to recruit Mikš for cooperation twice during his imprisonment but without success. Mikš stayed in Bytíz until 1962 when he was released under the second general amnesty.

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Choceň, airport

Available in: English | Česky

The airport in Choceň was constructed in 1935 to test-fly airplanes manufactured in the local Beneš-Mráz factory. After the war, Aeroclub was established by the airport; in 1969 Aeroclub merged with a similar club in Vysoké Mýto. The airport was primarily used for the test-flying purposes; the first ones to use it for other purposes were the members of the club of ultralight flying (Klub ultralekhého létání) in 1990. Since the end of the airplane manufacturing, the airport has been run by Pilotklub Choceň.

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Sorry, Zdeněk, We Are Full!

Zdeněk Mikš