In August 1945, Prchal returned to Czechoslovakia and rejoined its Air Force until demobilization in early 1946. 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. On 30 September 1950, Prchal, his wife, their daughter, and six others flew from Prague to RAF Manston in England in a stolen plane.