The NATO Days & Czech Air Force Days in Ostrava are a yearly held event at Leoš Janáček Airport in Ostrava. They showed a wide range of police and rescue technologies, dynamic shows of special units and heavy military power, in the air and on the ground. It also included (combat?) techniques of soldiers, fire fighters and police officers, custom officers, prison officers and elite units from the Security and Defense industry. As a unique event in Europe it shows NATO-power combined with national and local special units. It is the biggest show of safety and security in Central Europe.

This year's special guest nation was Slovakia which brought a lot of military equipment to Ostrava. One of the highlights was the first appearance outside Slovakia of the brand new Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk, which is going to replace the Mil Mi-17 in the near future. A Mil Mi-17 from the Slovak Air Force was also part in the static display. It was the last opportunity to see the last airworthy Tupolev Tu-154M in Europe, operated by the Slovak Government Flying Service. The classic aircraft made a last fly pass together with the replacement, the Airbus 319-ACE (the Tu-154M was ferried to Kosice on September 27, where it will be displayed in the Aviation Museum). Both aircraft did a touch and go before the Tu-154M made its last high speed fly pass forever. The Slovak Government Flying Service brought two other rarities to the NATO Days 2017, one Fokker 100 and one Mil Mi-171, which were exhibited in the static display.

The display teams for this year's edition were the French Air Force tactical demo team "Couteau Delta" with two Mirages 2000Ds aircraft from 2/3 Champagne BA133 Nancy-Ochey. The other display team on site was the Royal Saudi Air Force display team "Saudi Hawks" from the Royal Saudi Air Force". The team was formed in 1998 as No 88 Squadron at King Abdulaziz Air Base (Dhahran), and is equipped with BAe Hawks Mk65 and Mk65A. Both display teams and the other solo displays did their rehearsals on Thursday and on Friday before the official show days. But the weather conditions changed at the weekend. On Saturday rain came early and so only some displays could be flown, but when "Couteau Delta" took off, one aircraft had a technical failure immediately after the start, so the display had to be cancelled. Due to the bad weather conditions the Royal Saudi Hawks were also cancelled. On Sunday the display director, Colonel Jaroslav Míka decided to cancel all flying displays due to the unfavourable flying conditions.

Despite the bad the weather conditions 65 0000 people paid a visit to the NATO Days & Czech Air Force Days in Ostrava. See you on a sunny weekend in September 2018.

Media would like to express our thanks to the head of the press Center, Ms Andrea Čeřovská for their great hospitality and assistance.

Condolences to the family of Capt. Orlandi and the Italian Air Force would like to express their most sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Capt. Gabriele Orlandi, who lost his live on 24 September 2017 in a fatal accident with the Eurofighter Typhoon at the Terracina Airshow in Italy. In Ostrava the spectators saw one of the last spectacular and powerful displays from Capt. Orlandi in his Typhoon. He will be sadly missed.

Flying display participants:

Bell-412, Czech Police

JAS-39C Gripen, L-159 ALCA, Mi-24, Mi-171s, Mi-2, Czech Air Force

MiG 15, Czech Flying Legends

Mirage 2000D, Couteau Delta, French Air Force

Eurofighter, C-27J, C-130J, Italian Air Force

PC-9M, Slovenian Armed Forces

W-3 Sokol, PZL-130 Orlik, Polish Air Force

MiG 29AS, Slovak Air Force

Saab 32 Lansen, Swedish Air Force Historic Flight

Hawk MK65A, Saudi Hawks, Royal Saudi Air Force

Static aircraft

 Eurofighter EF-2000, Austrian Air Force