lieutenant colonel Vaclav SIKA: During one of our hand-over flight to USSR, we had intermediate landing in KOSICE airbase. The regiment´s commander Emil RACKO requested a meeting with us and he had asked, if we are not interested in teaching Syrian cadets to fly. My colleagues MEJSTRIK and SLOVAK agreed immediately, but I took my time to decide. In fact, there was already one group of Czechoslovak instructors in SYRIA (lead by Bohuslav HORAK) and there were rumors about forthcoming war. At the end, however, I decided to go.

After few and useless classes of English, at autumn of 1969 we landed in SYRIA. It was easier to communicate Russian than Engish and later we even learned some Arabic and we were flying a lot. During those two years in SYRIA, I had accumulated 700 flying hours. I was definitely sleeping less than flying. The only accident that I experienced was described below. Two stroks have flown into our cockpit and created enormous havoc and chaos. At that time, we were not using helmets, just leather masks. But I´m sure that even helmet would not prevent cadet from his injuries. Windshield of our L-29 bursted into thousand shards, there were feathers everywhere and bird´s entrails everywhere. My cadet had his mask torn down and injured face, however the sights took the main impact force. I couldn´t see anything through the blood, entrails and feathers. I tried to explain the flight controller in broken Arabic in what deep trouble we have gotten into. Calmly, they directed us for landing. With the wake of all the forces we managed to land. Immediately after landing I tried to estimate the damage, while doctor was treating the cadet. I was thinking, that flying is over, at least for today. Squadron leader woke me up from my contemplating and told me: “there you have another jet, get in it and continue”. The most interesting part was the approach of Syrian command. They behaved like nothing happened and flying continued.

Much worse outcome had the accident, that I took part in, on my way to work. While we were in ALEPPO, a bus came out of narrow side street and crashed into us, and I don´t remember anything else. I woke up in the hospital, where doctors were seaming lacerated wound on my head. I also suffered concussion and other injuries. The same happened to my colleague Jan PITONAK. The Arabs told us, that we will never fly again. Luckily, we already knew at that time, that our mission is almost over and we will fly home. We were returning like war invalids – bandaged and hobbling. We were a sad sight to see. Our recovery took several months, but I have made it. After endless medical checks in health department of aviation I was declared fit to fly without restrictions.