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A light airplane crashed during take-off at an airfield in Plasy, western Bohemia, on Sunday. The plane was carrying two people but no one suffered any injuries in the accident, a spokesman for the local fire brigade said. The news agency ČTK reported the plane’s engine lost power during take-off and the pilot ended the manoeuvre. The plane then crashed some 50 metres away from the runway. Causes of the accident are under investigation.

In this week’s Business News: later exist from weak crown probable; first major Malaysian investment announced; tax freedom day arrives; Ahold told to curb some of its supermarket purchases; and cider looks like becoming a Summer hit.

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka says the Czech Republic will be calling for an increase in the presence of NATO troops in Europe. Mr. Sobotka made the comments in reaction to American President Barack Obama’s announcement on a visit to Poland that the US was planning to invest USD 1 billion in increasing its military presence in Eastern Europe in view of the situation in Ukraine and instability in the region. Speaking on a visit to Vienna, the Czech leader said he understood why Poland or the Baltic States were in favour of a greater US military presence. But he said he believed there would be no need to increase the number of NATO soldiers on the ground in Europe for some years if things remained as they were now.

The Czech government did not respond a US offer to lease 14 fighter jets for the Czech Air Force, the news website aktulane.cz reported on Thursday. The report says the offer to lease US-made F-16 aircraft was last made in February, before the Czech government decided to lease the Swedish jets Gripen instead. The conditions of the deal were reportedly better that those offered by Sweden. The website quotes David Cannavo, the head of a US company which was mediating the deal, as saying they never heard back from the Czech government, and that the US embassy in Prague told the firm the deal on leasing Gripen fighters had been sealed long before.

The outgoing Czech government on Thursday postponed a decision on prolonging a lease of Gripen fighter jets for the Czech Air Force, the Czech defence minister said. The decision will be made by the new cabinet in the coming months. The government was planning to lease 14 aircraft until the year 2027 for an annual fee of some 69 million US dollars. The Czech Republic first leased the Swedish-made fighter jets in 2005.

The outgoing Czech interim government on Thursday approved the sale of 28 redundant L-159 combat planes to the US company Draken International, Defence Minister Vlastimil Picek told reporters. The deal is expected to fetch between 435 and 516 million crowns depending on the technical state of the aircraft. 24 of the planes should be operational while the additional four will be used for spare parts. The US firm Draken International will reportedly use the Czech-made planes in training programmes for US military pilots. Several Czech governments have been trying to sell the redundant aircraft ever since it became obvious that the Czech Air Force would only need a third of the 72 planes it acquired in 1997.

A deal by the Czech Republic to sell 24 L159 training jets to Iraq for more than 20 billion crowns has fallen through, financial daily Hospodářské noviny reported on Monday. According to the newspaper, the country lost out to South Korea’s Korean Aircraft Industries, who signed a contract with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki last week. The Korean firm succeeded even though media reports had suggested the Czech sale was almost a “done deal”. The Czech Republic had hoped to see the creation of more than 700 new jobs at home had a deal been reached. The sale of the Aero Vodochody planes was discussed for several years.

The Czech Defence Ministry says it is close to a deal to sell most of its surplus combat planes. The potential buyer, the US firm Draken International, is reportedly interested in acquiring 28 L-159 planes that would be used as practice targets for US pilots. If agreement is reached, the Defence Ministry will receive around 500 million crowns for the planes.

The Defence Ministry is aiming to scrap aging Russian Yak-40 regional jets and replace them with a new medium-sized airliner, the Airbus A319. After 2020, it aims to buy two medium-size transport planes as well as to replace Soviet-made fighter helicopters with a new multi-purpose fleet, the Czech news agency reports, citing material from the ministry to be discussed at the government level next week. The analysis and plans are reportedly critical of the current state of the country’s aircraft fleet.

A special Russian Antonov An-30B aircraft landed at Pardubice airport on Wednesday ahead of a planned observation mission in the Czech Republic over the next one or two days, the Czech Defence Ministry’s Vladimír Šupšak told the Czech News Agency. The Russian inspection team will take pictures of locations of strategic importance on Czech territory under the Open Skies programme of armament monitoring. The country is obliged to accept four observation missions a year and it is allowed to conduct four of its own abroad annually, Mr Šupšak confirmed. The Russian inspection team has 17 members, including the flight crew, technicians and inspectors.