Aviators remember Milan Rastislav Štefánik

On Sunday, five ultra-light aircraft from the Italian airport of Campoformido (near Udine) flew low above the M.R. Štefánik airport in Bratislava to commemorate the General whose name was given to the airport. The event took part also to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Czechoslovakia. The first Slovak astronaut Ivan Bella, the commander of the Sliač Aviation Base, Colonel Vladimír Lisý; SFUL President Marián Sluk and aviation veterans participated in the event. Slovak politician, diplomat and scientist Milan Rastislav Štefánik participated in shaping the Czech-Slovak revolt outside the borders of Austria-Hungary during WWI and he was one of key persons in the foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, along with Tomas G. Masaryk and Edvard Beneš. His life prematurely ended on May 4, 1919. A plane with the first and at the same time last Czech-Slovak war minister on board suddenly crashed near the village of Ivanka pri Dunaji (Bratislava region) and everyone on board died.