on 22 september františek's unit was ordered to withdraw with its remaining aircraft to romania. the unit flew first to ispas in bukovina, and then via various airfields eventually to pipera near bucharest, where it was interned by the romanian authorities. but many interned members of the polish air force escaped. they included a group of four czechoslovak airmen nicknamed the "czech cloverleaf": josef balejka, josef františek, vilém košař (who was one of the pilots who had landed to rescue františek after his forced landing in poland) and matěj pavlovič. the four went to constanța, whence a romanian cargo steamship, the "dacia", took them to beirut in french-ruled lebanon.