Czech Republic Airshow Tragedy Under Investigation

The world has lost the last airworthy Hawker Hurricane Mk. IV—an eminently capable iteration of Britain’s storied WWII fighter.

Lesser known but of greater wartime significance than the Supermarine Spitfires alongside which it defended England’s green and pleasant land from Axis belligerence, Hawker’s Hurricane was noted for its efficacy, durability, ease of production and maintenance, and design adaptability.

The lost Hurricane—callsign BE150/00-HUR—went down in a field near a private residence in the eastern Czech district of Podhrad. A woman on the ground sustained minor injuries. The Hurricane’s pilot, Mr. Petr Paces, was killed. The accident occurred during an aerial display held in conjunction with an air show in the nearby town of Cheb.

An experienced and highly-regarded aviator, Mr. Paces flew both L-29 Mayas and MiG-21 Fishbeds in the Czech Air Force before becoming a 737 captain and check-airman at Smartwings, the Czech Republic’s largest airline.

The downed Hurricane was owned by Czech internet entrepreneur Ivo Lukacovic, who displayed the machine at the Tocná Aviation Museum, south of the Czech capital city of Prague. Mr. Lukacovic expressed dismay over Mr. Paces death in a tweet, stating the latter had been "looking forward to his number like a little boy" prior to the accident.

One of over 14,000 produced by Hawker Aircraft and wartime licensees before and during the Second World War, the ill-fated, single-seat, single-engine, Rolls Royce-powered, propeller-driven Hurricane was built in 1942, and saw action against Hitler’s Luftwaffe and Mussolini’s Regia Aeronautica in Italy, Greece, and Yugoslavia. The aircraft had the distinction of having been the first Hurricane flown by Sqn. Ldr. Karel Kuttelwascher, the Royal Air Force’s top-scoring, wartime, Czechoslovak pilot.

In a post-accident statement, a spokeswoman for the police department of the nearby Czech city of Karlovy Vary asserted that police investigators were working with personnel from the Czech Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (UZPLN) to determine the cause of the fatal accident. The spokeswoman disclosed that Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV)s and a 3D scanner were among the tools being used to gather evidence relevant to the tragedy.

FMI: www.tocna.cz