Strana 40
CN 810731, Special Operations squadron, 3 Air Transport Regiment,
Praha-Kbely, Czechoslovakia, 1990
CN 851527, Slov-Air, Czechoslovakia, 1990
At the end of the 1980s, the Turbolet serial number
810731 was used in a saloon version for transpor-
ting foreign arms inspectors of the Conference
on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE)
by the Special Operations Squadron, which was
part of the 3 Transport Aviation Regiment in Pra-
ha-Kbely. The camouflage was complemented by
large areas of yellow on the wings, tail and nose
of the aircraft. Most of the stencilling was not re-
covered in these areas.
The state-owned Slov-Air company, which repla-
ced the former ČSA Agrolet in 1969, was the first
Czechoslovak user of the L-410. It added the first
aircraft to its fleet in the second half of 1971. The
aircraft, still in the L-410A version, were used
for domestic transport and were handed over
to ČSA in 1975. This aircraft was purchased by
the Aviation Inspectorate Bureau and flown by
the crew of Miroslav Srnec and Pavel Plaček
on November 15, 1985, with the matriculation
OK
-
PXI. Shortly afterwards, the Bureau revised
its intentions (the aircraft was to serve for ca-
libration purposes) and in November 1986 it was
offered for sale or transfer. Moravan company
and Kunovice aero club were interested, the-
re was also a Yugoslavian bidder and also the
army or ČSA were considered. Finally, Slov-Air
acquired the aircraft in October 1988. On Octo-
ber 24, 1988, the aircraft was matriculated as
OK
-
PDI and used for the JZD AK Slušovice (aero
services of the agriculture company Slušovice),
and later also transported Slovak government
representatives. In 1992 the aircraft was written
off after the nose gear was damaged during lan-
ding. The aircraft was then parked for a long time
at the Žilina airport, after which it was transpor-
ted to Bratislava and used for airport firefighters
training.
KITS 10/2024
INFO Eduard40
October 2024