Vasile Maluțan

Vasile Maluțan (May 1995) was a Romanian aviation colonel and the personal pilot of Nicolae Ceaușescu.

On 22 December 1989, he piloted the helicopter that Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu used to unsuccessfully flee the headquarters of the Central Committee during the Romanian Revolution. He claimed to have run out of fuel and landed near Târgoviște, where the couple was eventually captured, and later tried and executed.

Maluța died on May 26, 1995, in a helicopter crash while conducting crop-dusting operations near Fundulea, Călărași County. The helicopter's tail got entangled in high-tension wires, leading to the crash. His death occurred shortly after he had testified before a parliamentary commission about the events of December 1989, raising various speculations and conspiracy theories about the circumstances of his accident.