- Franciszek Jarecki
Franciszek Jarecki (born 1931) is a former pilot of the Polish Air Force, whose name became famous in early 1953, when he decided to escape Soviet-controlled Poland in a
Mig-15 plane, which was one of the best planes owned by the Soviets at that time.Jarecki was born in 1931 in
Gdów , a town nearKraków . He was a graduate of a prestigiousPolish Air Force school of aviation inDęblin . Some time in the early 1950s he was moved toSłupsk in northern Poland, near theBaltic Sea . There, he flew Soviet MiG-15 planes, as a few of them were owned by the Polish Air Force.On the morning of March 5, 1953 (coincidentally, the same date of
Joseph Stalin 's death), Jarecki escaped Poland in the MiG-15. The decision was a very risky one, as the Polish People’s Army had previously shot those who tried to escape. For example, Edward Pytko, an instructor at Deblin, tried to escape to Western Germany in 1952, but was stopped by Soviet aircraft over Eastern Germany and handed back to the Poles. Pytko's escape was regarded as high treason, for which only one kind of punishment was meted out.Jarecki flew from Slupsk to the field airport at
Rønne on the DanishBornholm island. The whole trip took him only a few minutes. There, specialists from theUSA , called by Danish authorities, thoroughly checked the plane. According to international regulations, they returned it by ship to Poland a few weeks later. Jarecki stayed in the West. From Denmark he moved toLondon , where GeneralWładysław Anders gave him an order, and then to the USA, where he provided crucial information about modern Soviet aircraft and air tactics. His escape was a godsend to the Americans, who were at that time fighting theKorean War and theU.S Air Force pilots did not know how to fight MiG-15 planes.Among those who shook his hand was PresidentDwight Eisenhower . Jarecki also received a $50,000 prize for the person who was first to present a MiG-15 to the Americans and became a US citizen.A few months later, another Polish pilot successfully escaped with a MiG-15 to Bornholm, this time it was Zdzislaw Jazwinski. Three years later, four students of Deblin’s school escaped in two
Yak-18 planes, crossingCzechoslovakia to land nearVienna .Currently, Frank Jarecki lives in
Pennsylvania . He owns a factory in Fairview, Pennsylvania, called Jarecki Industries. The uniform in which he escaped can be seen at theNational Air and Space Museum inWashington, D.C . In 2006 Polish TV StationTVN made a movie “Jarecki”, which is part of the “Great Escapes” series. The series shows stories about Poles who escaped the country between 1944-1989 and chose freedom in the West.ources
* http://www.videofact.com/polska/ucieczki_oficerow_lwp2proba.html
* http://wielkieucieczki.onet.pl/1326400,filmy.html
* http://www.military-heat.com/46/black-ops-american-pilots-flying-russian-aircraft-cold-war/
* http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!239850!0ee also
*
List of Cold War pilot defections
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