Eduard Maximilian Prchal (1 January 1911 – 4 December[1] 1984) was a Czechoslovakian pilot and sole survivor of a 1943 plane crash that killed the Polish Prime Minister.

On 22 June 1939, soon after the German occupation of Czech lands, Prchal illegally crossed the border into Poland and a week later arrived in France.

At the outset of World War II, Prchal joined the French Armee de l'Air and made three "kills" during the Battle of France.

Two days after the French capitulation, he flew from Bordeaux to Bayonne and boarded a ship to England, where he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and later was posted to the 310th Czechoslovak Squadron.

He then worked as the chief pilot of the Czechoslovak National Airline (ČSA), but he distrusted the new rulers of his homeland after the Communist Party seized power in 1948, and he feared arrest.

[citation needed] In 1967, Rolf Hochhuth, a German playwright, included one theory of the 1943 crash in his play Soldiers: An Obituary for Geneva.

A libel case resulted and a court in London found in favour of Prchal and awarded him substantial damages and costs of £50,000.