View Full Version : Slovak/Ukranian mystery
https://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=dXV7FkQoWdc7nlMhz9dBaaNfkMCdM&q=nizny+hrusov+lietadlo+news&lr=English&hl=sk&sa=X&ved=0CCsQqgIwAWoVChMI_NusyvWByAIVzwjbCh1DLwXY
Around 5.00 AM (before dawn) people living in the vicinity heard a crunch. This Ukranian aircraft, with ID marks cut away, was found abandoned.
onetrack
19th Sep 2015, 01:57
Quite likely to be cigarette smugglers. They have cut out the portion of the fuselage skin that holds the aircraft registration to try and avoid being traced.
I believe the aircraft is a Czech-constructed LET Z 37 Cmelak, used primarily for agricultural spraying work. There is an LET Z 37 suspended from the ceiling of the Museum Technik Sinsheim.
They have cut out the portion of the fuselage skin that holds the aircraft registration to try and avoid being traced.You don't say!
Edit: sorry that was uncharitable. I suspect you're right about the cigarettes. I gather the aircraft has now been identified: with so many plane-spotters there's nobody to hide.
There is a joke about the Čmelák, that it translates as bumblebee, and aeronautical students are told that in theory the bee can't fly.
This certainly doesn't apply to the turbine version. Apart from its usual career it has almost a cult reputation from its use in international gliding competitions, taking a glider to 500 or 600m and getting back down on the ground in about half the time of the other tugs.
FougaMagister
7th Oct 2015, 21:44
Errr... Looking at the pictures in the Slovakian press (see links), I wonder how many cigarette packs that aircraft can hold; probably no more than the weight of a second passenger behind the pilot, in other words not much more than 100kg or so. Would it be worth organising a clandestine, night-time, low-altitude border crossing, with all the risks involved? IMHO it may be in fact be some sort of drug smuggling - amphetamines or similar.
Cheers :cool:
India Four Two
8th Oct 2015, 14:38
FM,
Don't forget it is a crop sprayer with a 650 litre hopper. That's a lot of ciggies, over and above the back seat space.
FougaMagister
9th Oct 2015, 08:51
Noted. Was the contraband still inside when the police located the wreck? Otherwise, removing whatever it was may have taken some time for the solo pilot...
Cheers :cool:
No, there was no trace of it. I hope there were more than 2 people involved otherwise it would seem that the pilot must have hit his brother, then removed the contraband, then taken him to hospital where he was pronounced dead. I can only hope he was already dead before his brother removed the contraband and that he couldn't have been saved if taken to the hospital earlier.