Slt. Av. Braga Ilie

A few months ago, a good friend of mine told me about a lost relative of hers that used to be a pilot. It was the brother of her grandmother, and his name was Ilie Braga.
Apparently, he was a pilot (figher?), probably stationed near Campina, and was killed in an accident in the first few months of 1941.

Unfortunately, we don't know what unit he served in or when and where the fatal crash occured, as well as the type of aircraft he might have flown, and we were wondering if anyone on this forum had some extra information on the subject.

Besides the facts posted above, other things we do have include his flight licence, a few photographs, and a small notebook containing aviation themed poetry, as well as a few personal entries, the last dated January 25, 1941.




Slt. Av. Braga Ilie, or, as the signature in his notebook states, "Bragga Ilye"
Note the Junior Warrant Officer (Ofiter Echipaj Cls III) rank on his epaulets in this picture.



Civilan pilot's licence.



Military pilot's licence.



Group Photograph in front of a Fleet 10 G, probably in Flight School. Please note the insignia on the upper wing: "5AS".
Braga is apparently first from the left in the lower rank.





Another two grop photos, also in front pf Fleets.
There is a caption in pencil on the back of the last picture reading: "1 Sandulescu, 1 Cotuciu (?), 1 Popescu ach" as well as a stamp from a Galati Photo Studio.



Braga is second from the right, in the light coloured suit.



An odd, out of alignment picture. Baga is standing on the far left. Caption in pink coloured pencil on the back reads:"Baloi Tache 6l 1b, Braga 12lei 2b, Suzarea 12lei 2b.

A further strange piece of information we have are "assesments", written in a secret code of people we assume to be fellow pilots either from his Flight School class or opperational unit. The date on the first page reads "December 25, 1940" near his signature, "Slt. Av. Bragga Ilye".

Here is the full list of names, as they appear in the notebook:

1) Aleman Alexandru
2) Alexe Aurel
3) Atanasiu Ovidiu
4) Badistru Ion
5) Botnar Vladimir
6) Brandus Alexandru
7) Buzdugan Aristotel
8) Cascaleteanu Gheorghe
9) Ciotea Dumitru
10) Ciugudeanu Vicentiu
11) Culeer Mircea
12) Coman Gheorghe
13) Constantinescu Marin
14) Constantinescu Mihai
15) Dumitrescu Haralambie
16) Eftimescu Marin
17) Encioiu Dumitru
18) Feodorof Vasile
19) Garba Stroe
20) Ghenea Gheorghe
21) Gheorghita Ioan
22) Girolamo Ameno
23) Grebencea Cara
24) Hortolomei Ioan
25) Iovanschi (Iovonschi?) Anton
26) Ilie Ghita
27) Ionita Ioan
28) Lagara Vasile (?)
29) Lazarescu Marius
30) Luchici Petre
31) Macovei Tudor
32) Monzarescu Vladimir (?)
33) Manu Laurentiu
34) Molica Alexandru
35) Moraru Alexandru
36) Oprea Ioan
37) Pasarica Paul
38) Profir Mihai
39) Rotaru Marin
40) Sorbu Aurel
41) Scodrea Constantin
42) Sereianu Daniel
43) Simion Tudor
44) Spranceana Nicolae
45) Stan Nicolae
46) Stepan Gheorghe
47) Tataru Vasile
48) Tifrea Gheorghe
49) Tura Ioan
50) Valcu Alecu
51) Vicas Octavian
52) Vranceanu Mircea
53) Panduru ioan
54) Stefanov Cosman (?)

This post has been edited by Wings_of_wrath on February 07, 2006 11:31 pm

The pilot you're looking for was indeed a fighter pilot, on I.A.R. 80s.

He died in an accident, when another '80 collided with his aircraft while taxiing.
Here is the entry in my database:
07-Jul-42 I.A.R. 80A+ 126 Gr. 9 van., Esc. 52 van. Adj. av. Ilie Braga+ Pipera aer. acc. lovit in timpul rularii de un alt '80. Pilotul ars in carlinga [JurnOp Fl.1 v.]

This sad event and the horrific death of Adj. av. Braga was captured by a series of photos, showing No. 126 in flames. The pilot was still trapped in the cockpit.

By any chance, is his logbook (carnet de sbor) available?

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on February 08, 2006 12:57 am

"5AS" is in fact part of the Fleet's civilian registration, YR-SAS.

Gen. Dénes

Some of them have been posted by C-2 in Who's 80 is this? Details about the accident.

Thank you for your swift answers.

My friend confirmed she saw the same photographs a few years ago in her grandmother's collection, but later they went missing.

It is a sad feeling to know Ilie Braga died so young. He was only a few months older than my current age.
To him, and all the pilots that died in WW2, Dumnezeu sa-i odihneasca!

Dénes: Indeed, the "YR", is faintly visible on the left wing of the aircraft* in the picture, and that confirms us the Fleet would have been in its civilian yellow and blue livery rathen than the all green one the military would have used.

*Strangely enough it is not visible at all on the actual photograph, probably because I adjusted the picture's brightness and contrast after scanning. Of course, the original gloss is also only 6X9cm and badly wrinkled. I had my doubts about the insignia being "5AS" or "SAS", but since I was unable to discern the "YR" on the other wing in the actual photo, I assumed it to be the former.
Neither of the several "Carnete de sbor" he would of had is among the few things that were returned to Slt. Braga's family. All information we had is allready displayed on this forum, except for the poetry notebook.

CarolI: Thank you for the link to the photos of the accident. Much obliged.

This post has been edited by Wings_of_wrath on February 08, 2006 09:12 am