Li-2 crash below Zadni Gerlach

The crash occurred on the night of 14 to 15 October 1944 below the summit of Zadni Gerlach in the Slovak Tatras. A twin-engine Li-2 transport aircraft of the Soviet Air Forces, of Soviet production under licence from the American Douglas C-47, struck the slope of Zadni Gerlach for unknown reasons. The crash took place about eighty metres below the main summit, on the side of the Batizovská Valley.

The aircraft was flying from Krosno and carrying supplies and paratroopers of the 2nd Czechoslovak Parachute Brigade, as support for the fighting partisans of the Slovak National Uprising. The accident was accompanied by an explosion of the fuel and ammunition on board, the traces of which on the rocks are visible to this day. All the passengers and crew were killed on the spot, and the remains of the machine and the bodies of the victims were scattered over a considerable area.

The first person to learn of the tragedy was Jozef Džadoň – a forester working in that area, who came across the wreckage and the bodies at the turn of May and June 1945; however, he did not notify anyone of his discovery for fear of the consequences of finding weapons and ammunition. Large fragments of the aircraft and the bodies of some of the soldiers were discovered only in August 1945 by Polish Tatra climbers: Tadeusz Orłowski and Danuta Schiele, who were climbing in that area. In 1946 a Slovak expedition brought down the bodies, which were buried in the village of Gerlachov in the local cemetery. In 1950 a monument to commemorate the victims of the crash was erected in Tatranské Zruby. Larger parts of the machine and the cargo were collected and brought down from below the summit until 1962; until 1991 they were exhibited in the TANAP Museum in Tatranská Lomnica.

For a long time it was thought that there were twenty-four victims. The latest data and the commemorative monument indicate the deaths of twenty-two people: sixteen Slovaks and six Russians. It was the largest air crash in the Tatras in terms of the number of victims.

The cause of the accident was most probably a combination of several factors: flying at night in poor visibility, strong wind, damage to the altimeter and, according to unconfirmed information, earlier damage to one of the engines.