Biggest Sponsor of the Motorists Party Built an Illegal Helicopter Hangar and Is Offering an Unlicensed Helicopter Taxi Service

Jiří Vlk, the largest official sponsor of the ruling Czech Motorists party, has landed at the centre of several investigations at once. According to a media investigation, on his plot on the southern edge of Prague, in the Kunratice district, where Vlk runs a helicopter business with partners, a hangar and the adjoining concrete pad were built without a permit — the land itself is still officially registered in the cadastre as arable farmland.

According to the Prague 4 building authority, the case over the illegal structure has been open since January 2024. Vlk later applied for retroactive approval but never submitted the required documents, which led the authority to ban the use of both the hangar and the concrete pad in front of it this past July.

Flights near people and a busy road

At the same time, the Czech Civil Aviation Authority is investigating two take-offs and two landings at the site over suspicions that the required safety distance from bystanders was not maintained. Under the authority's rules, no unauthorised person should be within 50 metres of a helicopter — but aviation officials say that is simply impossible to guarantee at the site near Vídeňská Street. The authority has already issued a 50,000-crown fine in the case; the ruling has not yet taken effect, and the matter is now before the Ministry of Transport on appeal.

An employee at a nearby car dealership said helicopter traffic over the site keeps growing: "Some days there are five take-offs." Data from Flightradar24 and ADS-B Exchange confirm that Vlk's helicopters are still taking off and landing at the Kunratice site, including as recently as September 9.

Helicopter taxi without a licence

The investigation also found that Vlk's company is offering passenger flights by helicopter without holding a commercial air transport licence. Posing as a company representative needing to fly three or four people to Zlín and back, a journalist called Vlk and was offered the flight structured as a helicopter rental or a "shared flight," priced at 20,000–30,000 crowns per flying hour depending on the aircraft type.

Under EU rules, cost-sharing flights are indeed permitted — similar to carpooling — but the costs must be split among all passengers and the pilot, the flight cannot generate a profit, and it cannot be offered to legal entities, as Vlk did. Vlk himself insists he is not engaged in commercial transport and says he has already passed two inspections by the aviation authority without any fines.

Criminal record and the pilot's medical fitness

Jiří Vlk does not hold a commercial pilot's licence — only a private helicopter pilot certificate valid for non-commercial flights. It was Vlk at the controls this summer when Motorists' honorary chairman Filip Turek flew over factories in the Moravian-Silesian Region; that flight was registered as a private, non-commercial trip, and the aviation authority found no violations.

Separately, the authority is examining whether Vlk meets the required health standards, including mental fitness, in light of a now-final conviction for extortion involving a weapon. Case documents show Vlk had three prior convictions, including for assaulting a public official; the court found him capable of "impulsive violent behaviour."

Notably, the aviation authority's legal-methodology department has been headed since January by the entrepreneur's son, Adam Vlk, previously listed as the owner of the family firm Heli4U. The authority says it has taken steps to keep the son out of proceedings involving his father's case, and claims he is complying with that condition.

Companies belonging to the Vlk family have donated 3.2 million crowns to the Motorists party, and Jiří Vlk himself ran for the Chamber of Deputies on the party's ticket last year. The businessman denies any wrongdoing: "I don't understand why you need to catch me on something."

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Source: seznamzpravy.cz