Jan Brskovsky, president with the Light Aircraft Association of one's Czech Republic, said Jirik was an experienced pilot together with the precise grounds for the accident is absolutely not promptly known.

Jirik was cleared to try out with the NHL by Czech authorities. He was a perfect wing who played only 3 games with the St. Louis Blues from the 1969-70 season. He spent the majority of the season during the minors while using Blue springs Blues.

Jirik scored 83 ambitions within his 134 international games for Czechoslovakia, winning the silver medal within the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble and bronze inside the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics. In 450 games in your Czech league, he scored 300 targets.

He was one of the leading players around the 1960s, federation president Tomas Kral stated in a very statement. He was an excellent player and also a superb character who was still active even though turning 70, Kral said. Its an amazing loss for Czech ice hockey.

Just after his playing profession, Jirik coached various Czechoslovak clubs and ran the Swiss national team from 1977-80.


Jirik died while in the city of Brno, about 125 miles from Prague. His ultralight one-seater crashed after that takeoff in the Brno Medlanky airport and caught fire, police mentioned.