Hijacking of the aircraft OK ADN L410 TURBOLET on June 8, 1972 - Forensic Medical Notes

Overview

On 8 June 1972, the Czechoslovak OK DNN aircraft carrier L410 Turbolet was delivered to the regular line Marianske Lazne - Prague to the Federal Republic of Germany. About 8 minutes after the launch from Marianske Lazne Airport, the likely head of the group of kidnappers threw the captain of the plane. During the fight with one of the passenger, the head of the group of kidnappers killed the captain of the aircraft by a shot from 7.65 mm pistol. Other members of the hijackers group attacked other passengers. After the aircraft captain’s death, the second pilot took command and landed at the sports club at Weiden. After the landing, the kidnappers were detained by the police. Ten kidnappers stayed in the Federal Republic of Germany. An airplane with other passengers and coffin of a shot captain landed in Prague Ruzyne the following day. On June 12, 1972, the re-autopsy of the captain of the aircraft was performed at the Central Military Hospital in Prague. Post-autopsy status was detected. In this re-autopsy, it was possible to reconstruct the fire channel only incompletely, because during the previous autopsy performed in Federal Republic of Germany was excised the shot wound left on the neck. The fire channel began with a hole in the skin 10 cm above the right breast nipple, continued to the left and slightly upward through the subcutaneous tissue, passed through the 2nd rib at the right at a distance of 4.5 cm from the sternum, continued the lower and inner sides of the right collarbone, flowing on the front the ring cartilage and the first ring of the trachea, and on the underside of the left lobes of the thyroid gland, passed on the front of the left common carotid and continued into the area of the left SCM. The exid shot hole was on the left half of the neck. The direction of the shotway canal from right side to left side was detectable only by the fragment of the 2nd rib, which was broken out to the left and inside. The cause of the captain’s death was a traumatic shock. The injury was caused by a short firearm of small stance. Additional factors of firing were not found on the skin, as well as no signs of gas pressure. At the request of the experts performing the autopsy, a copy of the autopsy protocol from Germany was sent to them by an autopsied doctor. Among other things, it was reported that a 6.5 cm under the lower end of the left ear was a transversely oval, 2.5 cm long and 1.2 cm wide, red-black dried place of the upper skin, from which center run out a little red blood. At the conclusion of the autopsy protocol, it was found that there was a shotgun injury at the left side of the neck and the right side of the chest. The entrance wound according to the sent copy of the autopsy protocol, lay on the left side of the neck, the bullet penetrated the neck muscles, broke the inner branch of the cervical artery, passed through the trachea, penetrated the collarbone, split the 2nd rib to the right about 2 cm next to the sternum and the right chest 10 cm above the breast the nipple stepped out of the body. The direction of the penetration of the projectile through the body therefore had the opposite orientation compared to the re- autopsy. On the basis of this finding, the expert opinion from the re-autopsy was supplemented in the sense that there is no evidence in the autopsy protocol from Germany for the conclusion of the shot on the left side of the neck. Both autopsy experts examined the space of the aircraft cabin. The inspection showed that from the left, that is to the neck, the captain of the aircraft could be hit only if the attacker held the pistol in his left hand in a completely unnatural position so that his forearm was pulled upward over the left shoulder of the captain just to the left of the cabin and a hand bent in the wrist at a steep angle down to the right. The position of the shooter’s hand would be more natural if the captain of the aircraft turned backward over his left shoulder and turned the hull to the left. But this would be completely useless because of the situation, as he would look into the left cabin wall. More natural would be turning right over his right shoulder. In that case, he could be hit on the right side of the chest.

The shooting kidnapper committed suicide in a cell overnight from 12 to 13 January 1973.

It is not possible, based on the information available, to decide exactly how the gunshot has been going on. Czech experts did not have clothing of the captain or conclusions about their examination, and the hole on the left side of the neck was cut out by the German expert and was not provided to the Czech party through the request. It may be considered strange that the autopsy in Germany was performed in this relatively serious case outside the renowned forensic medicine department.

Keywords:

kidnapping of an aircraft – gunshot wound – input wound – exit wound – direction of shooting