A few remarks
concerning the overall atmosphere in the air traffic control over territory of
Slovakia in those faraway years.
Distorted values.
The so-called socialist countries were boasting about classless
societies, bereft of exploiters and exploited, that everybody’s remuneration is
commensurate with the nature of work performed. At the same time, it was being
proclaimed that the Communist Party, together with the working class (in the
“classless” society!) are the leading forces in the society.
As to remuneration, the salaries of various employees were similar. After
becoming the Air Traffic Controller in 1960 my first salary was 1490 Kčs
(Czechoslovak Korunas) per calendar month. Every year I received a few Kčs per
month more, and in the year 1968 I was receiving 2200 Kčs per month. For comparison,
the cleaning lady in or offices received about 1600 Kčs per month. A few years
earlier, as a labourer, I was receiving about 1500 Kčs per month, a year
earlier my assistant Land Surveyor was receiving also about 1300 Kčs per month.
Recently I discovered a document according to which one of my aunts, working as
a “liquidator of insurance cases” was earning 2900 Kčs per month in 1969. My
wife, a technical clerk, had in 1967 salary of 1944 Kčs per month. We air
traffic controllers had an additional benefit of one uniform every few years
plus a free airline ticket once a year to anywhere in Czechoslovakia (for
comparison, our counterparts in Austria were getting several airline tickets
per year to anywhere in the world). Some of my colleagues were promoted to
higher positions, for instance to the position of a Senior Controller, where
the salary was somewhat higher; such an honour has never been bestowed upon me.
In our office there sat air force “coordinators”, one in every
shift (Filipko, Ollík, Švarc a Zúbrik). Their
role was to maintain contact between the civilian and military ATC. The
military being superior to the civilian, nominally these “coordinators” had
upper hand in our mutual dealings. That upper hand was restricted by their
ignorance of ATC procedures, law and regulations, and also by their lack of
language skills. They were all colonels by ranking, and their salaries were
around 5000 Kčs per month, plus uniforms for free, food while on duty for free,
flats in military-owned blocks of flats (for free), and once a year one month
of recreation in one of the military-run holiday establishments. Each of them
had a car, whereas among us, civilians, only a couple of bosses had them.
Now, what is the connection between this and the control of air
transport over territory of Slovakia? This one is hard to explain.
For instance, the Air Traffic Control service had an array of equipment
at its disposal. Some of the equipment was so important that even a momentary
failure could endanger safety of flights. Most prominent amongst these were
transmitters and receivers. Second in prominence were telephones; third were
radio beacons scattered over Slovakia, and, finally, teletypes.
Apart from insufficient coverage of territory of Slovakia (between about 20 and 60%, depending on the height of the airplane), our
transmitters and receivers (Soviet made) were of inferior quality, our
transmission was difficult to understand, and they were prone to frequent
failures; “hot” back-up equipment, despite being stipulated by law, was non-existent. In
the case of the failure the controller on duty would ring Technical Centre and
appraise the mechanic on duty of the failure. On occasions it happened that
there was no answer from the Technical Centre. On such occasion (-s) the
controller had to ring around, looking for mechanics. Sometimes he would find
them in the airport pub. When complain was raised he would receive an answer to
the effect that the “mechanics are workers and are entitled to a beer or two”.
Hidden in the answer was universally understood statement that we “office
people” are of somewhat lesser ranking. Quite often we heard people say that we
are just sitting in our offices, nice and warm, just talking into our
microphones, while they are somewhere outside, WORKING hard. Quite often we
heard the words uttered behind our backs that “here goes another zerozero”.
That referred to the standard way of communication between the ground and the
air traffic. The aircraft heights were given in metres, 1800, 2100, 2400, etc. They were
of vital importance, and they were repeated by both controller and the
airplanes. In English, that sounded for example, “Climb to two-four-zero-zero”,
which was in turn repeated by the airplane “Roger, climb to
two-four-zero-zero”. The mechanics heard those interminable zero-zeros often and we
became zerozeros to them, whether they knew the meaning of it or not. Such a
situation is hard to understand today, in the cosiness of “western” societies,
but that is how it was…
Communist Party members (some 10-20% of the population) were also
class by itself. One of our colleagues was a bit of an alcoholic (an
understatement!) and would turn up for work intoxicated. Being a member of the
Party, he would earn for his troubles just a mild admonishment from his boss,
more in a jest, than anything: “Oh, Yano, can you get sloshed just a little
less on occasions?”. Of course, Yano was allowed to continue working, it goes
without saying…
Described above, these were not infrequent instances, they were
daily occurrences! During my shift at Prague Area ATC I warned an air taxi
pilot (Olda Chyba) of a very strong cold front crossing his path and advised
him to fly around or land and wait for it to pass. Chyba ignored my warning,
flew straight into the front and crashed, killing himself and his 4 passengers.
Another air taxi pilot, Mičica, was based in a mountainous area, and used to
fly in meteorological conditions far below permitted minimums – I, myself, saw
him once taking off in an almost complete fog! Talking to him he told me that
based where he was, he would not be able to fly for half of the year. As to
myself, I was flying once from Prague to Bratislava a twin-engine L-200, with 4
passengers on board. Some 30 kilometres from the airport, flying 300 metres
above the ground, I narrowly avoided a scheduled airliner, a Tu-124, flying
nose-to-nose towards me at the same 300 metres above ground, in an area where
he should have been at least several thousand metres above ground.
Needless to say, the instances described above, had never been reported in
writing, never officially discussed with the management, procedures have never
been rectified.
And here is one classical example of lackadaisical approach to air
traffic was direct cause of crash of a Bulgaria airliner near Bratislava in
1966.
Shown below is text I wrote in wikipedia Discussion
a few years ago.
I worked as an air traffic controller at the Area Control Office
in Bratislava between 1961 and 1968. I also taught flying on powered airplanes
at the aero club Vajnory. In my spare time I was designing air traffic control
radar station to be located at a nearby hill called Malý Javorník. Upon request
I am able to present copies of my relevant licences.
On the day of the Bulgarian Airlines Il-18 airplane LZ-BEN
tragedy I had a morning shift (6am to 1pm) and there were several aircraft flying from
southern Europe towards Prague. One of them, a Czechoslovak Airlines jet was
flying to Prague, another, the Bulgarian turboprop, was flying to
Berlin. After crossing the area of my responsibility (between Sturovo and Brno)
and while they were under Czech Air Traffic Control somewhere between Brno and
Prague, they both decided to turn around and land in Bratislava due to fog at
both Berlin and Prague. There was a military area on the way. The Czech
airliner was allowed to proceed from Brno to Bratislava directly above that area, the Bulgarian one was instructed to make a slight detour (from Brno via
Velke Kostolany), in accordance with the existing rules. Our instructions were
acknowledged by both aircraft. We were unable to see the two aircraft on our
radar. When both of them were about 80 kilometres from Bratislava airport
they were instructed to contact the airport’s tower for further instructions.
After a few minutes I received telephone call from the tower (who were able to
see both aircraft on their short-range radar) informing me that both the
aircraft are approaching the airport from the same direction, across the
military area. The Bulgarian crew clearly ignored my instructions and simply
followed the Czech airliner. I was finishing my duty a few hours later, and on
my way out, I saw the Bulgarian air crew at the Briefing Office. I asked the captain
informally why have the instructions been ignored. He replied that they could
see the Czech airliner clearly some distance in front of them, and there was no
problem, was there? Well, knowing that any complaint to my management would be
falling on deaf ears I went home (there was at the time the atmosphere of not
reporting anything, from “minor” trespasses of aviation law, through
malfunctioning equipment right to ATC and associated personnel working under
influence of alcohol. (A complaint from Me, "That Well-Known Shit-Stirrer", would
have been rejected double-quick!).
I lived only a few kilometres from the airport, and a few hours
later, just as the sun was setting, I heard the jet airplane of the Czech
airlines taking off. I was outside my house and saw it climbing at about
1000-1500 metres above ground, above the mountains which are about 300-600 metres
high, heading in the military area direction, and Brno. I went inside and a few
minutes later I heard the noise of the turboprop engines, knowing that it
belonged to the Bulgarian aircraft. When the noise subsided, I assumed the
aircraft turned away from the mountains, away from the direction of the
military area, towards Velke Kostolany, in accordance with the standard
instructions. How wrong I was! A few moments later I heard the children outside
screaming that an aircraft had crashed. I ran outside and saw the unmistakable
cloud of smoke rising above the clouds covering the mountain tops down to about
edge of the forest level (approx. 150 metres vertically above the airport level). I
ran to the nearby factory where I knew they had telephone in their guardhouse, rang the airport tower with the news, only to hear from
them (expletives deleted) that the “Bulgarian” is not responding, and could not
be seen on their radar…
I ran to the site, about 3-4 kilometres distant. First snow of
the winter was beginning to fall. When I arrived at the site it was almost
completely dark. I saw flames everywhere, scattered parts of the airplane,
human body parts, scattered luggage, and from the general arrangement of the
broken trees, parts, etc. I realized that this was a highspeed impact, and
that there was nothing for me to do. I ran back to a nearest telephone and
appraised the air traffic control of my findings. I realized immediately that the
crew again ignored the instructions to turn away from the military area, and
simply followed the Czech airlines aircraft that departed a few minutes
earlier; the same way as they arrived a few hours earlier. The height of 300
metres above the airport level was stipulated by the air traffic controller
with respect to some other traffic in the airport’s area, under assumption that
the Bulgarian aircraft would follow the instructions and turn to the right
after take-off (away from the mountains, that at the time of take-off were
clearly visible (together with the cap of clouds on their tops), and towards Velke
Kostolany.
Epilogue.
Thank you for attention. I apologize for errors, and
although I made various notes for myself over the years, it is 50 years
since, all in all. I would be grateful for all remarks, criticism,
corrections, additions from aviation people, even from the management and State
Security, and relevant items will be incorporated with thanks.
And one more apology...
My text is tinder dry, and only just-so interesting to people
involved with air traffic control. Still, I felt it important to say what
I knew and what I was doing; I am not sure if it had been described
as such anywhere else. And as well, I wanted people to remember times we
were forced to live in from the perspective of an ordinary person. „Western“ world at the time was technically and organizationally far ahead of us and was
progressing organically along with development of new technologies and methods.
We were learning about it only slowly, with the improvement of our language
skills. Squinting towards the „west“ was not permitted, our heads were forcibly
turned towards the East (i. e. Soviet Union), where the air traffic control, and
aviation as a whole, was even more backward than ours; our society was
reeking with rotten smell... Most of us were steeped in „western“ culture,
western way of thinking, we were born into it, as were our ancestors, Czech and
Slovakian culture is, and has been, „western“; „Eastern“ thinking was being
forced into us by the Soviet „culture“ and by the non-elected lowlife in our
governments. I lived in that system, and reading my notes I cannot
but think of 32 lost years...
To you people in the future - defend your freedom!
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At the time of leaving Czechoslovakia in August 1968... For details ref. relevant blogs.
- In 1955-57 I worked in the Air Force as an electrical mechanic on jet fighters MiG-15; Blog No. (4)
- In 1958-59 I worked as a Land Surveyor; (5)
- In 1959-60 I worked as a labourer/shoveler in Chemical Industries J. D.; (6)
- In 1958, I started promoting - verbally, by mail, telephone, etc. - the idea of organising some sort of aerobatic competition (see my blog Aeroclub). The first World Aerobatic Championship took place two years later, in 1960, at my home aeroclub of Vajnory; (8)
- at that Aerobatic championship I discussed with a member of the Spanish team the squiggles I (like many local pilots) used to describe aerobatic manoeuvres. His much-improved version of my squiggles has been published as the Aresti Catalog; (8)
- I was trying to commemorate the recently killed French pilot Leon Biancotto at our aeroclub by some Memorial Aerobatic competition - I did not succeed, the opposition was too fierce; (8)
- After some deep discussions in mid-1960 with the local parachutists (Kiss, Nagy, Hindicky, Mehes, etc.) they decided to start lobbying along channels similar to mine. The result: World Parachute Jumping held at our aeroclub of Vajnory a year later; (8)
- I was working as an Air Traffic Controller with responsibility for
air traffic over the territory of Slovakia (during exchanges occasionally also over the Czech part of Czechoslovakia); (10 - 15)
- I had very good personal relationship with many persons high in the
aviation field: Ondro Hudoba, a friend, whom I helped to become Manager of
airport in Kosice; col. R. Vesperin, high in the management of (Air Force
owned) aeroclubs in Czechoslovakia; all the top persons in the management of
(Air Force owned) aeroclubs in Slovakia (col. Anton Soska, their Head, cpt. Viliam Kuna, Hanovec, Huliak, etc.);
- I was preparing plans for relocation of the ATC radar and radio-communication equipment (despite discouraged, expressly ordered not to by the management, even threatened by jail by the omnipresent Secret Police (StB); (12)
- I was beginning to cooperate with a budding weather forecaster (Dusan Podhorsky) on my idea to use radar for weather forecasting; (6) (13)
- I was involved in talks with the neighbouring ATC in Austria about
cooperation in positioning our radar so that images from it could be used by
the Austrian ATC; (13)
- I was lecturing in courses for new Air Traffic Controllers
(meteorology, radio equipment, Aeronautical Law, etc.) - 1967 only; (9)
- I was lecturing in winter courses for future pilots at the Aeroclub Vajnory;
- I was promoting the idea of establishing a Faculty of Aeronautics at the University of Transport in Zilina; (9)
- there being no persons with flying experience among the existing Air Traffic Control personnel at the time, I managed to bring some 10-14 Private Pilot Licence holders from Aeroclub Vajnory to the ATC; (9)
- I was working as a volunteer flight Instructor/tug pilot/joy flights pilot, etc. at the Aeroclub Vajnory;
- I was the holder of Private Pilot Licence with all possible ratings: Single- and Multi-engine airplanes to 5400kg max. weight, Flight Instructor, Tug Pilot, Joy flights pilot, international flights endorsement (English). As a lieutenant (and a Courier pilot) in the Reserve Air Force I, together with a few others in the aeroclub Vajnory, used to ferry various high-ranking persons all around Czechoslovakia ;
- I was in contact with a few aerobatic pilots from abroad (Ruesch and
Wagner, Swiss, N. Williams, England, one Hungarian (Toth?), and few others whose names
I can't remember);
- I was organising meetings to discuss the political climate in Slovakia which at the time was hampering progress in ATC developments. (14)
After demise of the "socialism" (7) with its socially corrosive, morally and economically destructive policies, most of the ideas mentioned above have been implemented; the radars, both ATC and the meteorological one, have been built first, as early as one or two years after my leaving of Czechoslovakia.
The Faculty has been established some 20 years later.
Since 1960, World Aerobatic Championships are being held every few years
in different places around the world.
In Australia.
On arrival in Melbourne at the end of September 1968, we were housed at
Broadmeadows Military Camp in a unit in one of their "Nissen" huts.
The next day I rang the Department of Civil Aviation, as instructed by Mr.
Sutton at Australian Immigration Office in Vienna, Austria. On hearing my case
I was invited, in November 1968 (I think), for an interview to a building at Flinders St., Melbourne. My
(already translated) Air Traffic Control and Private Pilot licences were
examined, copies taken, and I was interrogated by the panel consisting of 3 men
and one woman. At the end of the meeting, I was told that in order to gain the
Australian ATC Licence I must undertake a 12 months' long course that was scheduled to begin
sometime next year, and that I would be notified in due course. As well, I was
told that only applicants who are British Subjects have any chance of success.
My references to my recent activities (listed above) in Europe were being politely ignored.
Apart from answering the panel's questions I had very little to say, being sure
of my fairly high qualifications.
Following this initial interview, I have never been contacted by the DCA, and in the meantime I had to seek some
sort of gainful employment. I worked for a while as a cleaning hand at Essendon and Moorabbin airports, technician at Ericsson,
Broadmeadows, and in August 1969, I landed a job as a Design Draftsman at GM
Holden's.
I was mentally leaving my 15 years in aviation behind, when, suddenly, I
received the following letter from the DCA, written by a member of the examining panel. As we were in the process of changing our address at the time the letter was received much later, well after the time indicated in the letter:
Being 33 already, not being a British Subject yet (not until 1972, three years
later) and the DCA intake age cut-off being 36, I could not risk NOT being
accepted again. Instead, I decided to continue in my carrier as the Design
Draftsman (and, eventually, as an Engineer, see further blogs). My reply to the
DCA was written by hand and I did not keep a copy. The following is the content
of it, rendered as faithfully as I can remember:
Since publication
of these texts + notes on the Aeroclub in Slovakian language some 12
years ago I managed to find three former colleagues who worked in the same
capacity, in the same office and in the same Aeroclub as myself. All three of
them were intimately familiar with everything that is written in my texts, and
undoubtedly could remember things that escaped my attention at the time or fell
through cracks in my memory. All three of them were well into their sixties,
even seventies, when I sent them copies of all texts of my years in the
Czechoslovak air traffic control, as well as copies of the Aeroclub text. Two
of them received their copies via Internet, one of them I had to send hard
copies, him not being on the Internet.
I asked all three
of them for comments, or criticism, corrections, revisions or additions.
First two of them
commented only verbally to the effect that the text is well written & that
they could not think of anything that could be added to it. The third of them,
the one who received the hard copies, some 45 pages of A4 format, just looked
at them, perhaps read a first few lines, perused some of the pictures in them,
and told me over the 'phone that the text seems very well written & that he
will read it all if he could find time for it, and let me know of his opinion,
etc. That was several years ago, I haven't heard from him since...
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