The craziest aircraft hijackings in the history of Hungary

Although most people first conjure up the horrific images of the 9/11 disaster when they hear about aircraft hijackings, Hungary has also had a fair share of air incidents, although they did not receive such media coverage since most of them took place in the past century. In this post, we garnered the most memorable aircraft hijackings of all time carried out by Hungarian daredevils. Let’s hop on the plane for a little time travel!

The first aircraft hijacking

The first aircraft hijacking in Hungarian history is linked to the name of an adventurous nobleman Ferenc Nopcsa who traveled Europe as a scientist looking for dinosaur remnants. He discovered the first bones in the backyard of his family’s castle in Szacsal (in Hunyad County which today belongs to Romania) when he was barely 18 years old. He then developed an unsatiable passion for paleontology and became the most influential person in his field in Hungary. The hijacking incident happened in 1909 when Nopcsa attained an aircraft with an outdated approval document and convinced the pilot to head to Vienna by allegedly holding a revolver to his head. Apparently, the restless adventurer did not have the patience to wait for a commercial flight or take the train.

Source: wikipedia.com

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Hungarian PM on a mission

Who would have thought that Hungarian PMs were such daredevils back in the day? The second aircraft hijacking was committed by no one less famous than the last Hungarian King himself, Károly IV., the father of Otto Habsburg. He was not able to enjoy his crown for long as he was forced to renounce following the Hungarian army’s WWI defeat and the fall of the Astro-Hungarian Empire. He fled to Switzerland, however, he could not stand his controlling, strong-headed wife Zita’s constant nagging and he made several failed attempts to reclaim his position from the then-PM Miklós Horthy. On a gloomy October day in 1921, he went for a leisure flight with his loyal ex-colonel compatriots. They took off in Zurich with a 6-passenger Junker F-13 aircraft operated by the Ad Astra air company. However, once they reached the flying altitude, they coerced the pilot to change the direction to Hungary. Despite the promising start, Károly’s coup was short-lived as three days later, his people were defeated by government-close forces at the battle of Budaörs. The former king was ousted and sent to Madeira where he died of Spanish flu the following year.

Source: wikipedia.com

Hungarian Bonnie and Clyde

Probably the most romantic aircraft hijacking in history was executed by a Hungarian couple during the communist era in ‘56. György Polyák and his wife came up with the grand plan of hijacking a commercial plane and crossing the border by air in a boxing club where their common friend boxing champion Ferenc Iszák was training. At that time, Hungary was separated from the West by the impenetrable Iron Curtain, and fleeing the country was practically impossible without risking one’s life. Disillusioned by the Socialist system, the young couple boarded a plane to Győr, in northern Hungary, and with the help of their friend and 6 crew members successfully took the turn to the west and landed in Munich. Once on free land, the couple applied for asylum, along with the crew and two passengers. They are remembered as real heroes who fought for their freedom against all odds in an era when such a daring act would have meant an imminent death sentence by the Communist authorities. The story even made it to the big screen under the title Freedom Flight (Szabadság – különjárat), which you can also watch on Netflix.

Below, you can visit the movie’s Facebook page:

Cover picture source: Fortepan 3734 (UVATERV)

Read more: The Hungarian CIA agent who exposed the biggest espionage operation against NATO

Source: index.hu, origo.hu, mult-kor.hu