For Hungary’s economy and energy minister, flying carries an unusually personal meaning. Asked about aviation while travelling on board a plane, István Kapitány recalled his father, a Malév chief pilot who died in a crash near Paris when the future minister was not yet one year old. Decades later, aviation would unexpectedly become a constant part of Kapitány’s own life as well.
“The first thing that usually comes to mind is my father, who was a chief pilot at Malév and flew a great deal,” Kapitány said.
His father was a professional pilot for Malév, Hungary’s former national airline. Kapitány said that despite choosing an entirely different profession himself, flying ultimately became a major part of his own life as well.
Working for a large international company meant travelling constantly. According to the minister, he visited 85 countries by air over the course of his career.
“I chose a job in which I ended up flying more in my life than my father did,” he said.
His father, also named István Kapitány, was the captain of Malév Flight 355, one of the most serious accidents in the history of Hungary’s former national airline.
From turboprops to giant Airbuses
Kapitány described an unusually wide range of flying experiences accumulated over several decades. He recalled travelling on everything from small turboprop aircraft to large Airbus and Boeing jets.
Yet despite spending so much time in airports and aircraft cabins, he said flying never became something he simply endured as part of the job. He continues to enjoy not only aircraft themselves, but also the social side of travelling: meeting new people, discovering different cultures and striking up conversations during flights.
“I love the whole atmosphere,” he said.
He summed up his enthusiasm with a characteristically Hungarian comparison, saying he likes aircraft at least as much as Transport and Investment Minister Dávid Vitézy likes trains and buses.
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A plain tragedy near Paris
Behind Kapitány’s enthusiasm for flying lies a deeply personal family history. His father, István Kapitány Sr, was a Malév chief pilot who died in an air crash when Kapitány was less than a year old.
On 23 November 1962, Malév Flight 355 was travelling from Budapest to Paris, with a stop in Frankfurt.The aircraft, an Ilyushin Il-18V registered as HA-MOD, crashed while approaching Paris-Le Bourget Airport near Roissy-en-France.
All 21 people on board – 13 passengers and eight crew members – were deceased. István Kapitány Sr was the aircraft’s captain. Aviation accident records show that he had accumulated more than 10,000 flying hours by the time of the crash.
Kapitány was born in December 1961, meaning he was not yet one year old when his father died. French, Hungarian and Soviet experts tried to determine the exact cause of the crash, but were unable to reach a definitive conclusion.
Despite losing his father in an aviation disaster, Kapitány himself became fascinated with flying. He has previously recalled that he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a pilot. Ultimately, however, he chose a different career, partly at the request of his family.
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Featured image: Facebook / Kapitány István
