The Escape from Bucharest 19-05-1978

Hello

I was one of the "pilots" on that flight and when we crossed the border with Hungary we have been intercepted by at least one MiG 21 from Hungarian air force ...

I wrote the book but before I publish it ...It would be nice to complete the story from the Hungarian point of view too ... to find out what exactly happened in Hungary ...

You see, The Romanians did not care that the plane was a red cross ...It has been declared an infractor aircraft and the order to shoot down the plane had to be executed , which the Romanians did ,

but without luck ..

I would like to get in touch with the Hungarian pilot who intercepted us in Hungary and find out why the Hungarians did not try to shoot us down ...

Can anybody from this Forum help Please ?

Regards

Viorel ...

For those who want to keep it confidential please contact me via my email

Many thanks for your help ...

Chiocolom

Vio...

Hello every body.

First of all I would like to thank this wonderful forum of yours for allowing me to join ; I feel honored and privileged to be a part of it ...

My first flight was a totally crazy flight and only got involved because we wanted to save a relative's life - cousin of my friend George - the "pilot" . I was the copilot and the navigator ..

It was a miracle we survived the Romanian Air Force interception and attack on us ...

We were very lucky and pleased to see that the Hungarian Airforce was not shooting at us ...

I would very much like to have a talk with the Hungarian air force pilot who intercepted us ...

I was one of the "pilots" on that flight and when we crossed the border with Hungary we have been intercepted by at least one MiG 21 from Hungarian air force ...

I wrote the book but before I publish it ...It would be nice to complete the story from the Hungarian point of view too ... to find out what exactly happened in Hungary ...

You see, The Romanians did not care that the plane was a red cross ...It has been declared an infractor aircraft and the order to shoot down the plane had to be executed , which the Romanians did ,

but without luck ..

I would like to get in touch with the Hungarian pilot who intercepted us in Hungary and find out why the Hungarians did not try to shoot us down ...

Can anybody from this Forum help Please ?

Viorel said:

Hello every body.

I would like to get in touch with the Hungarian pilot who intercepted us in Hungary and find out why the Hungarians did not try to shoot us down ...

Can anybody from this Forum help Please ?

Click to expand...

I can't help with your request, but thank you for sharing your experience.
I did not know of your flight, but did find this very simplistic outline of the event.

19 May 1978 Two mechanics employed by CIPA (Centrul de Instruire a Personalului Aeronautic; Center for Aeronautical Personnel Training) at the Baneasa airport in Bucharest Romania, Viorel Nicolae and George Florescu, stole a Britten Norman BN-2-A27 Islander (YR-BNK). This aircraft had been produced under license by IRMA (Intreprinderea de Reparatii Material Aeronautic; Enterprise for Aeronautical Material Repairement, now called Romaero) and was one of the aircraft of this type allocated to Aviasan, a nation-wide emergency medical flying service. Consequently, it sported large Red Cross signs on the fuselage and wings.

After the Islander took off, a pair of Romanian MiG-21 Fishbeds from the 91st Fighter Regiment at Deveselu were scrambled, but due to a misunderstanding on the radio, they instead intercepted and forced down a Romanian An-2 Colt. Two other Romanian MiG-21 Fishbeds from the 93rd regiment at Giarmata (near Timisoara) did intercept the Islander and order it to land at the Arad airport. However, the MiG-21s were low on fuel and had to return to their base.

The Islander then continued on and crossed Hungary from south-east to north-west before landing in a field in Austria near Vienna. The landing gear was slightly damaged in the off-field landing. Several workers from IRMA were sent to Austria to dismantle the aircraft and it was returned to Romania in a truck. Viorel Nicolae and George Florescu were allowed to apply for political asylum and settled in Melbourne, Australia.

Click to expand...

Could you expand on the plight of George's cousin, if that is OK with you?

I never heard about this flight.
Mulţumesc to Viorel for bringing attention to that story.
It's good to know that Viorel and George managed to escape from the unfreedom.
As they used to say in Poland: Za wolność naszą i waszą.

We have returned to Baneasa airport -the place of our departure where when we took off we forgot that the brakes were not on start up .So the Islander began to roll immediately toward a parked AN 24 ... I pushed the rudder pedal to the maximum without using right brake as well . Therefor the turn was gentle instead of sharp turn .. In the process the left wing tip hit the nose of the AN 24 causing damage to both aircraft ... Then George pushed the throttle controls full to forward ... The plane darted forward so fast people thought we were trying to take off from the tarmac ... But then we had to hit the brakes as we were approaching the taxiway to the runway ... Wheels locked followed by loud skidding noises , smoke coming out of the wheels ... right wheel up in the air as we were turning right to make it to the runway ... When we got onto the runway we froze ... Finally we took off . Turned left heading NORTH WEST ... The air force had been looking for us every where - except to the north west ... where we were battling to maintain flight in a roller coaster stile over the Carpathians... Anyway finally we got intercepted at Arad where we survived the interception and the aiming firing shots ..It was a miracle we made it to Hungary ... We have the story from the Romanian pilot ; mr Maracineanu who intercepted us . In order to complete the story in the book before I publish it would be really nice to know what happened in Hungary . It would be nice to hear the story from the pilot who intercepted us at SZEGED or any other pilot involved so we can complete the story in the book ...Any help in this direction will be greatly appreciated ... Fingers crossed and thank you very much ...

The Escape from Bucharest - second testimony from the pilot Mr Bogdan who last flew the plane we used for the escape ;---- BNK
Mr Bogdan was returning from a training flight with his students . The pilot students were pilots graduates of military air force school of Bobocu .
The training was for airport procedures - approaching and departure - procedures at airports around the country ...
Also mr Bogdan and the students were a little puzzled by me being so eager to take the plane over and ask so many irrelevant questions for a mechanic ..I asked too many questions about the radio navigation equipment ... And I was the mechanic !! Just wanted to make sure that the ADF was working properly ... Which turned out it saved our lives at the interception time at ARAD ...


SECOND TESTIMONY ...

34 Years Later - The reunion