Mil Mi-8 helicopter crash in Bratislava

The Mil Mi-8 helicopter crash occurred on 20 October 1977 near Bratislava – Ivánka Airport. The three-member crew, a doctor, and Viera Husáková, the wife of the then Czechoslovak president Gustáv Husák, were killed.

Prelude to the accident

The president's wife Viera Husáková broke her arm at the Bardejov spa on 20 October 1977. She asked the Bardejov spa doctors to inform Professor MUDr. Pavol Novák, a doctor at SANOPS Bratislava (a state sanatorium for communist nomenklatura cadres and their family members), who had already treated her for a similar injury. He decided that he would fly to Bardejov to treat the president's wife. Negotiations began with the flight squadron of the federal Ministry of the Interior in Bratislava. Shortly before half past three in the afternoon, a Mil Mi-8 helicopter with one of the best crews took off from Bratislava airport. Professor Novák was also on board the helicopter. At around five in the afternoon the helicopter landed in Bardejov. The crew consisted of flight captain Milan Fabík, co-pilot František Mihalík and flight engineer Samuel Ďurč. The director of the spa counted on everyone staying the night there, even in the event that he did not persuade the professor to treat the prominent patient directly at the Bardejov hospital. Professor Novák could not be persuaded and unyieldingly insisted on transport to SANOPS. He argued that he had important operations in the morning and that he did not have his personal belongings with him. “I asked Major Fabík, who was the first pilot, whether they could not fly out only the next day. It was already dark. But he claimed that he had to fly today in any case,” recalled Lieutenant Jozef Jaslovský, Viera Husáková's personal bodyguard. The helicopter's captain, Major Milan Fabík, immediately afterwards asked him to notify the military airport in Košice by telephone of his helicopter's planned flight to Poprad.

Not even half an hour had passed since landing in Bardejov and the helicopter was in the air again. It was carrying a prominent person – the president's wife. It flew despite the fact that the weather was not ideal and after dark it was possible to fly only by instruments. The intermediate landing in Poprad was only to refuel. The helicopter then immediately took off and continued to Bratislava. Meanwhile, the weather in Bratislava had deteriorated. Runway visibility at Ivanka airport fell to 50 metres and vertical visibility even to 30 m. All scheduled flights were cancelled and the airport did not permit any take-offs or landings. For this reason too, three ČSA flights that were due to land in Bratislava at that time were diverted to alternate airports. The crew was informed of the unfavourable conditions. However, it refused the offer to land in Piešťany. The air traffic controller left everything to the decision of the helicopter crew.

Recollections of a witness to the accident

Ing. Ladislav Roller, a native of Ivanka, worked at that time as a technician of the flight squadron of the Ministry of the Interior of the SSR and recalled the event as follows:

“I knew the airmen who made the flight in question very well. The commander was supremely self-assured, a top pilot who did things all-out and liked to take risks. He even broke my thumb once during football... He was an expert at flying in the mountains. It was said of him that if he got killed, it would be in the Tatras, because he performed stunts there that others could not manage. He even sank one Mi 8 helicopter in the Low Tatras when he set down with it on the frozen Vrbické pleso and the ice broke through. The Soviets then pulled it out with a heavy helicopter...

On the day of departure on the fateful journey I watched his departure, and in the evening, in absolute fog, my wife and I (we lived near the runway) heard the sound of engines, which I could identify as the sound of a Mi 8. I was very surprised that anyone was flying in such bad weather. In the morning, after arriving at work, I learned the details. After losing contact with the helicopter, the technicians on duty got into a Škoda 1203 vehicle and, with the windows rolled down and their heads stuck out so that they could see the edges of the runway at all, went to look for it. After about three quarters of an hour of searching they caught the smell of aviation kerosene, followed it upwind, and 60 metres from the edge of the runway they came upon the wreckage. The rescue operation and the investigation began immediately.

During the day we identified and marked the wreckage so that it could be documented. The wreck was then transported to the hangar. One of the aspects of the investigation was the need to physically prove who had been flying the helicopter. The investigators cut off the hand and foot control levers to take fingerprints. While disconnecting the batteries, I noticed torn-out woollen threads from a sweater caught above the main pilot's position. From these it was confirmed that the aircraft commander had been flying the helicopter.”

The wreckage was found 300 metres before the runway threshold. From the effect of the ground contact on the airframe it can be concluded that the helicopter had a high speed. The crew was thrown out of the machine. They were found only after 50 minutes.

From the final report on the accident investigation

The flight, in view of the geographical sunset and the weather conditions, in particular the return flight with Bratislava as the destination airport, …