Kalinak Commemorates Victims of Slovak Military Plane Crash near Hejce

Bratislava, 18 January (TASR) - Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) has marked the 20th anniversary of the crash of a Slovak military aircraft near the Hungarian village of Hejce, in which 42 people, three women and 39 men, were killed. "These days we're commemorating the most tragic event in the history of our armed forces, in which 41 Slovak soldiers and one civilian employee of the Defence Ministry died while returning from the KFOR mission in Kosovo. It's an extremely sad, tragic event that reminds us all that life is unpredictable and service in the army is not a walk in the park. It is a risk, it is always about the commitment of the whole person, and especially in this case, when they were there to help, to protect security and peace, and they died tragically like this while returning home to their families, after doing their job," Kalinak has said in a video on the social network. Kalinak paid tribute to the victims of the tragedy and appealed that the names of these heroes should never be forgotten. He also thanked the residents of the village of Hejce for their reactions following the tragedy, describing it as a huge demonstration of solidarity. The An-24 plane, which was carrying the Slovak soldiers home from the KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, crashed in mountainous terrain in Hungary only 50 kilometres from the planned destination of Kosice on 19 January 2006. Only one of the 43 people on board survived. ko