Hijacking to Escape Communism | Tales From the Bottle

Sometimes you just gotta get the boys together and escape communism.


"In 1950, CSA became the world's first victim of a mass hijacking. Three Czechoslovak Douglas DC-3 airliners flown to an American airbase in Erding, near Munich, stirred the world on both sides of the "burnt through" Iron Curtain and the case intensified the Cold War between East and West overnight. On the morning of 24 March the three aircraft landed near Munich instead of at Prague; the first from Brno, at 08:20, the second from Moravská Ostrava at 08:40, and the third one from Bratislava at 09:20. Two-thirds of the people on board were involuntary passengers who later returned to Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak Communist government commissioned a 'flight to freedom' book, stage play, and film (all bearing the name Kidnap to Erding) which celebrated the kidnapped returnees as heroes who had not allowed themselves to be swayed by promises of capitalist opulence. The non-returnees who requested political asylum in West Germany were, on the other hand, proclaimed criminals and the Prague government vigorously requested their extradition – although in vain. The pilot from Brno was Josef Klesnil, a former Royal Air Force pilot with 311 squadron, who flew from Brno to Erding with a pistol at his head."

More on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_A...

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