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HISTORY
ally from January, 1995, ‘my’ ‘4127‘. In 1999,
the MiG was taken on by the 41st slt. At the time
when the plane operated from Caslav, it gained
a green shield, evidentally to incorporate a do-
g’s head of the ‘Hradec’reconn ight. I have not
been able to locate a photograph of the nished
marking on the aircraft. There are pics showing
the wing fences clearly in yellow with black tiger
striping, a design which also appeared on the
auxiliary intake doors and wheel chocs.
At this point, it appeared as though bad luck
would leave the plane alone. Thanks to a good
amount of airframe life left in her, she was cho-
sen as the prototype for the modernized MFN
version. This was a program designed to incor-
porate NATO compatibility. This included an
AN/APX-100 IFF system interrogator, a GPS/
NAVSTAR Trimble 2101 Plus navigation system,
radio-navigation system DME-42, VIR-42 ILS
system, two LUN 3520 two-way UHF/VHF ra-
dios, ARK-15 compass, and nally, added anti-
-collision lights. This brought it into the elite of the
MiG-21 force in the Army of the Czech Republic.
Only ten aircraft were chosen for this program.
It seemed that a relatively long future was en-
sured in service in the air force, in terms of the
MiG-21. But, fate would prove to be a very cru-
el playmate for ‘4127‘.
The modernization included another nine MiGs.
‘4127‘ had again reached star status, and had
shone on the apron at Caslav. But, unfortunately,
only until October 10, 2000. On that day, she
took off with Major Ivan Ondrak in the cockpit in
his last ight, and that of ‘4127‘.
It was a two ship ight for simulated combat.
The rest is mostly speculative. As it was fall, the
weather was nothing to write home about, with
a low ceiling. Nevertheless, permission was gran-
ted to y. The pilots anticipated going below the
lowest allowed altitude as determined by the
exercise during their ight. Because the altime-
ter lets go of a rather unpleasant alarm in the
ear pieces when this occurs, it appears that both
pilots turned these off. But, this is only an as-
sumption. In any case, the training exercise came
to an end, and the pilots were headed back
to Caslav. It also appeares that at this point,
the pilots neglected to turn the alarm back on.
At that time, I was in an Mi-17 headed to Prague
. When we entered Caslav air space, we were
dictated a change to our course and ight plan.
The cloud cover at the time was very low. In such
circumstances, and for all intents and purposes,
it was at ground level in higher elevations. The
reason for our new direction was given as a crash
of two MiGs in the area of an ammo dump at
Caslav. We were very close with our Mi-17, and
were on the scene within a couple of minutes.
The last thing that the Caslav ATC personnel
heard was the panicked tone of an ejection
from the aircraft. At that moment, all contact
was lost, and ATC couldn’t say if one or both
pilots punched out. We approached the area of
the reported crash. Under us, I could see what
appeared to be a part of a parachute in the
trees. We were vectored to a landing spot, and
sat the chopper down. We exited the Hip with
a nervous anxiety, but it became painfully clear
very quickly that we were faced with a catastro-
phe, and a double one at that. Both pilots were
killed, and so there were no survivors to look for.
The ight leader, who was Major Ing. Ondrak,
call sign ‘Devil’, was able to initiate ejection, but
there was not enough time for the system to save
his life.
At the time of impact, they were not far from
the landing strip, and even though visibility was
poor, they probably believed that they could get
safely below the clouds and follow the familiar
terrain back to the runway. Tragically, at a spot
where there was a break in the clouds, all that
they would see was the ground, which they im-
pacted.
And that was, without my knowing it at the time,
my last encounter with ‘4127‘. Fate dealt it the
dubious honor of being the nal MiG-21 crash in
the Czech Republic Air Force. I nd it incredible
how this aircraft would nd its way into my life,
and disappear, time and again, to the point that
I would even be involved in its tragic end.
The year 2000 saw the end of service of MiG-
-21MFN ‘4127‘, serial number 96004127, with
the deletion of it from the register of aircraft in
service. It served for twenty-ve years.
This article would not be possible wit-
hout the esential help and photographs of
Mr. Martin Janousek. I would also like to
acknowledge the help of Jiri Broz (others
strictly, but humbly declined to be named)
in obtaining further contacts. There are still
some grey areas nagging the full story of
MiG-21MF/MFN ‘4127‘, that will hopefully,
perhaps even as the result of this article, be
cleared up or detailed. I invite those who
may have relevant information to contact
me, and I thank in advance those who do.
(k.cvancara@seznam.cz)
Ing. Karel Cvancara
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Info Eduard - November 2011
Last documented marking of MiG-21MFN No. 4127 before the October 2000 disaster.