Hockey fans mourn crash victims

By Jack Buehrer and Klára Jiřičná

STAFF WRITERS

Hockey fans and mourners from across the country turned out by the thousands to memorial events held for the three Czech players killed in the Sept. 7 plane crash that devastated the Russian professional hockey club Yaroslavl Lokomotiv.

The crash took the lives of the entire Lokomotiv squad, including three members of the Czech national team: Jan Marek, Karel Rachůnek and Josef Vašíček.

"I'm very sad because I knew all the boys in person," Patrik Eliáš, star of the National Hockey League's (NHL) New Jersey Devils and a member of the Czech national team, told The Prague Post at an informal memorial on Old Town Square Sept. 8. "I played with them; I spent some time with them both at work and outside of work. It's absolutely unbelievable."

The Sept. 8 event was not as heavily attended as the more formal event held Sept. 11. Thousands crowded onto Old Town Square to pay tribute to the longtime national hockey stars, all of whom spent time in the NHL, as well. A number of speakers bid farewell to the players, and video highlights of all three were played. Among the attendees was hockey legend Jaromír Jágr, and the start of the Extraliga hockey season, which was slated for Sept. 9, was pushed back two days.

"They were outstanding and irreplaceable hockey players, friends and men," Czech Ice Hockey Association (ČSLH) President Tomáš Král told the deeply moved crowd. "I thank them for spreading the fame of Czech hockey in the world. This is how we kept them in our hearts. Thank you, guys."

The numbers of all three players have been retired by ČSLH.

"It's a horrible tragedy," said Vladimír Růžička, who coached all three players for the Czech national team that won the 2005 World Championship in Austria. "I'll remember them forever. We experienced successes as well as failures together."

Slovak hockey star Pavol Demitra was also killed in the crash, which claimed 44 victims. One member of the crew is still alive and in critical condition. The only player to survive the impact of the crash, Russian Alexander Galimov, finally succumbed to his injuries Sept. 11.

Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the crash, which occurred northeast of Moscow in Tunoshna. So far, officials have said a technical breakdown or pilot error may have contributed. The International Aviation Committee announced Sept. 12 that the plane's engines, stabilizers and flaps were intact at the time of the crash.

According to reports, the Yak-42 plane struggled to gain altitude immediately after takeoff and crashed just one mile from the end of the runway. The Soviet-era model has been the center of numerous safety inquiries recently after several similar accidents, including one which killed 52 passengers in June.

In the wake of the most recent accident, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has said Russia will do whatever it can to return Yaroslavl Lokomotiv of the Continental Hockey League to the ice in the future.

"It's a very tough tragedy, and in such circumstances, the state will do everything to support the club [and] maintain the traditions that have evolved here over the last years, which created such a brilliant team - of whom it is very painful to speak in the past tense," Medvedev told journalists Sept. 12.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended a memorial service in Moscow for the Russian players who were killed in the crash, but Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas and President Václav Klaus have received criticism for not attending either memorial event in Prague.

The writers can be reached at news@praguepost.com