Pilot PLATOGEA ION, need info

Hy, if you can help me, i want to get more info about one of my relative, who was an post WW2 pilot.
Unfortunately he died at 24 years old in an airplane accident. He was flying the first jets introduced in Romania after WW2.I dont know the tipe of the aircraft.
This information which i have are from my grandparents. This pilot, Platogea Ion, was the brother of my grand mother. So ,it is an uncle to me.

Now, this is the story, based upon the info i have from my grandparents.
My uncle join the army after the ww2. Then, the comunists were ruling the country and they want in the army people from the villages, not from towns. He was the only pilot from his class who lived in the country ("la tara"). So he acceded to the fighter pilot class. Because he have good marks he start to fly jets. After he graduates he was moved in "Mihail Kogalniceanu " air base and he recived an apartment in Ovidiu town.
As i said he died in 195_ and something (i dont know the exact year now, but i will in the future) at the age of 24.
I heard that he was the first pilot who fly below Cernavoda bridge with a jet fighter!!! Can anybody confirm that, please?
When he was flying patrols, he usualy changed his flight path and fly low over his birth place in Rovine village, Ialomita county. Imagine the panic and the sound of his jet engine. So everybody in the village knows him ."Look this is the son of...". In the villages everybody knows eachother.
One time, my grandfather told me that he was forced to eject over Carpatians mountains because some tehnical problem.
Another time he intercept an russian aircraft which was testing our airspace. After some fight maneuvres he force the russian to land by force.Maybe he have him in his gunsight.
This event give him an promotion and a medal, something with oak leaves( "frunze de stejar"). I dont know for sure. Such medal exist?
I will tell you more later.

He probably flew a Mig-15, since this is one of the first if not the first Jet of the Romanian airforce.

I am also interested to learn more about your unkle, I had aviators in the familly as well.

The Yak-17 was the first jet of the Romanian Air Force and not the MiG-15.

PLATOGEA Ioan, Lt. - Pilot, died during duty on 07. 09. 1955.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on January 26, 2005 01:55 pm

The Yak-17 was the first jet of the Romanian Air Force and not the MiG-15.

I said "one of the first"..

A Mig-15 can be found in the Military Museum in Bucharest, sitting outside in the wind and rain. I took a photo near it's wing.

(And I have doubts this man flew a Yak-17, in 1955)

You said and I quote:

and I simply established the fact that the MiG-15 wasn't the first jet in the RoAF.

Yes this is the corect name:PLATOGEA Ioan, Lt. - Pilot, died during duty on 07. 09. 1955.
Meanwhile, i visit his grave, and i see the day when he died. His grave is located in Reviga, jud. Ialomita.
Where did you find such information? If i want to find more about his pilot file should i visit some archives? and where? at MK base? (Mihail Kogalniceanu).Nowadays this airbase is nonfunctional...
The great news is that a street in his village was named by his name!!!

I've seen today in Fetesti town an monument dedicated to the airmen who have died in aircrashes. It is a real Mig 21 pointing to the sky, also dedicated to Doru Davidovici.
At the base of this real Mig 21 there is a small black piramid with the name of the pilots.
On one of the faces of the piramids there is my uncle name who died in 1955 fling a Mig 15. But unfortunately his name is misspelled. Instead of PLATOGEA Ioan it's writing PLOTOGEA Ioan.
Anyway im glad his memory is honoured.