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1975 An-2 shootdown incident

16 Jul 1975 · near the western Slovak town of Kúty

Antonov An-2 and Czechoslovak Air Force Aero L-29 Delfin · Shootdown

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
Unknown
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
Unknown
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
Unknown
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Military

Aircraft 1 · Antonov An-2

Aircraft type
Antonov AN-2
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
Unknown
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Gawłówek, near Bochnia in PolandTo not recorded

Aircraft 2 · Aero L-29 Delfin

Aircraft type
Aero L-29
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

On 16 July 1975, an Antonov An-2 utility biplane was shot down over Slovakia by a Czechoslovak Air Force Aero L-29 Delfin trainer while attempting to reach Austrian airspace. The aircraft had took off from Gawłówek, near Bochnia in Poland, and had been commandeered by flight instructor Dionizy Bielański, in an apparent attempt to defect to the West. The An-2 eventually crashed near the western Slovak town of Kúty, then Czechoslovakia, killing the pilot. General Wojciech Jaruzelski, then Minister of Defense of Poland and later de facto President of the country, who apparently issued the order to brought down the An-2, was charged with the death of Bielański in 2013.

Text from the Wikipedia article “1975 An-2 shootdown incident” (revision 1368281264, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article

Sources

Wikipedia article: 1975 An-2 shootdown incident
Article
1975 An-2 shootdown incident
Revision
1368281264 · 2026-08-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q9207645
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "1975 An-2 shootdown incident" (page 83718883, revision 1368281264)
Date
Wikipedia article text, read with AI assistance: date
Place and country
Wikipedia article text, read with AI assistance: site
Map position
Wikipedia article coordinates
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia article text, read with AI assistance: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
Fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.