Helicopter crash in Mlynická Valley
Mil Mi-8 helicopter
From Poprad-Tatry Airport (TAT) to an unrecorded destination
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
- 7 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 9
- 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
- Government
Mil Mi-8 helicopter
- Aircraft type
- Mil MI-8
- Category
- Helicopter · 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
- 7
- Route
- From Poprad-Tatry Airport (TAT)To not recorded
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The helicopter crash in Mlynická Valley on 25 June 1979 was a tragic accident during the rescue of a female hiker in the High Tatras in Slovakia.
Accident
While crossing the Bystré sedlo pass, a German female hiker slipped on snow and injured her leg. Her companion went for help, and the receptionist at the FIS hotel at Štrbské pleso contacted the Mountain Service. In the meantime, however, the hiker had returned to her lodging and did not inform anyone of this.
A Mil Mi-8 helicopter of the aviation unit of the Federal Ministry of the Interior from Prague, which had been provided as assistance for the summer season, took off from the airport in Poprad. It then landed at the heliport in Dolný Smokovec, where it took on six rescuers with complete equipment.
After a futile search, the helicopter crew decided to search in the area below Capie pleso in Mlynická Valley. While attempting to approach the terrace of the lake, a sudden gust of wind occurred and the tail section of the aircraft dropped. The helicopter broke apart, its front section plunged into the depths, and the fuel tanks exploded on impact with the rock.
The crew was in constant radio contact with the Poprad-Tatry airport tower until 15:35; at that moment the contact was interrupted. At 15:40 a report came in from Štrbské Pleso from volunteer workers of the Mountain Service that they had heard an explosion in Mlynická Valley and had seen flames and a lot of smoke.
Another ground group of the Tatra Mountain Service set out into the valley. At the scene it established the extent of the crash and carried three injured crew members down to the FIS hotel at Štrbské pleso. From there they were transported by another Mi-8 helicopter to the hospital in Poprad.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Czech Wikipedia article “Havárie vrtulníku v Mlynické dolině” (revision 25842183, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Czech Wikipedia article: Havárie vrtulníku v Mlynické dolině
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 25842183 · 2026-04-28 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q138935097
- 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
- cs Wikipedia article "Havárie vrtulníku v Mlynické dolině" (page 2053325, revision 25842183), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A Ministry of the Interior helicopter on a mountain rescue mission: a state body that is not an armed force. The article: "A Mil Mi-8 helicopter of the aviation unit of the Federal Ministry of the Interior from Prague"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Czech Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.