On 19 January 2006 an Antonov An-24 aircraft operated by the Slovak Air Force crashed in northern Hungary, near the village of Hejce and town of Telkibánya. The airplane was carrying Slovak peacekeepers from Kosovo. Of the 43 people on board, only one survived. The crash remains the deadliest in Hungarian and Slovak history.

The Slovak Air Force, known since 2002 as the Air Force of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic, is the aviation and air defense branch of the Slovak Armed Forces. Operating 15 aircraft and 18 helicopters from three air bases : Malacky–Kuchyňa, Sliač, Prešov. It succeeded the Czechoslovak Air Force together with the Czech Air Force in 1993. The Slovak Air Force is part of NATO Integrated Air Defense System – NATINADS.