Banja Luka incident (February 1994)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Banja Luka incident, on 28 February 1994, was an incident in which six Republika Srpska Air Force J-21 Jastreb single-seat light attack jets were engaged, and four of them shot down, by NATO warplanes from the United States Air Force. U.S.
F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...
fighters southwest of
Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city of Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is also the '' de facto'' capital of this entit ...
successfully engaged and destroyed several Bosnian Serb warplanes which had attacked a Bosnian factory, while suffering no casualties of their own. It marked the first active combat action, air-to-air or otherwise, in NATO's history.


Bombing of Novi Travnik

In February 1994, the
526th Fighter Squadron The 526th Fighter Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 86th Operations Group, based at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It was inactivated on 1 July 1994. History World War II Initially activated ...
, "Black Knights", based at Ramstein AB, Germany, was attached to the 401st Operations Group (Provisional) operating out of Aviano AB, Italy, as part of NATO's Operation Deny Flight. On 28 February, a flight of two 526th F-16s, "Knight 25" and "Knight 26", were crossing over Croatian airspace to conduct Close Air Support training near Sarajevo, Bosnia, when they detected six unidentified radar contacts eastbound in the No Fly Zone. These contacts were not immediately visible to the NATO AWACS aircraft flying over Hungarian territory because of distance and hilly terrain. After several minutes, AWACS was able to establish contact south of Banja Luka at 6:35 a.m. Two other 526th Squadron F-16s, ''Black 03'' and ''Black 04'', were vectored to the area and intercepted six J-21 Jastreb and two J-22 Orao aircraft that were bombing the "Bratstvo" military factory at Novi Travnik. In accordance with the UN and NATO rules of engagement, orders to ''"land or exit the no-fly zone or be engaged"'' were issued twice, but both warnings were ignored. While warnings were issued, the violating aircraft dropped bombs over their target, which was left in flames. In such circumstances NATO has a "single key", meaning that only one clearance was needed, so the
Combined Air Operations Center An Air Operations Center (AOC) is a type of command center used by the United States Air Force (USAF). It is the senior agency of the Air Force component commander to provide command and control of air operations.AIM-120 AMRAAM The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM (pronounced ), is an American beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. It is 7 inches (18 cm) in diameter, and employs ...
, downing the first Jastreb which was flying at . The remaining Jastrebs dropped to a few hundred metres, flying at low level to use the mountainous terrain to hide from radar and make their escape back to Udbina. Wright pressed on, closing to within AIM-9 Sidewinder range. He engaged two aircraft with heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles, shooting them both down. After he had expended all his missiles and low on fuel, Wright handed over the chase to his wingman, Capt. Scott O'Grady, who had been flying 'top cover' above his flight leader. O'Grady dropped down to engage and fired an AIM-9M; the missile locked on and near explosion of the warhead triggered by the proximity fuse severely damaged the tail of the targeted Jastreb. ''Black flight'' was now approaching ''"bingo fuel",'' the point at which a plane will not have enough fuel to return, so they pulled off to refuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker circling in orbit over the
Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...
. At the same time the other pair of F-16Cs, ''"Knight 25"'' and ''"Knight 26"'', had been vectored to the area by the AWACS. At 6:50 a.m., ''"Knight 25"'', piloted by Capt. Steve "Yogi" Allen, managed to get in behind a single Jastreb flying at a very low altitude. He launched a Sidewinder, downing another J-21 Jastreb. Knight 25 flight turned back hard to the south, where Knight 26, Col. John "Jace" Meyer, established radar lock on another aircraft fleeing to the northwest. After a minute of pursuit, radar contact was lost and the flight broke off the attack. Low on fuel, Knight 25 and 26 returned to the tanker over the Adriatic. After refueling, they resumed combat air patrol over Bosnia. One remaining Serb aircraft was able to land as it ran out of fuel at Udbina Air Base in the Serbian Krajina in present-day Croatia. The USAF credited three kills to
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
Robert Gordon "Wilbur" Wright, flying F-16C-40 #89-2137/RS, using an
AIM-120 AMRAAM The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM (pronounced ), is an American beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. It is 7 inches (18 cm) in diameter, and employs ...
and two AIM-9 Sidewinders; and one kill using an AIM-9 Sidewinder to Captain Stephen L. "Yogi" Allen flying F-16C-40 #89-2009/RS of the same unit. The Bosnian Serbs acknowledged the loss of five aircraft in the incident; the discrepancy probably stems from the fact that an additional aircraft crashed after being hit by a missile explosion while trying to escape in low-level flight. This engagement was the first wartime action conducted by NATO forces since its formation in 1949.


Aftermath

Eight days later, on March 8, a Spanish Air Force
CASA C-212 The CASA C-212 Aviocar is a turboprop-powered STOL medium cargo aircraft designed and built by the Spanish aircraft manufacturer Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA). It is designed for use by both civil and military operators. The C-212 w ...
transport plane was hit in the tail by what was reported to be a Soviet-made
SA-7 The 9K32 Strela-2 (russian: Cтрела, "arrow"; NATO reporting name SA-7 Grail) is a light-weight, shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile (or MANPADS) system. It is designed to target aircraft at low altitudes with passive infrared homing gui ...
MANPADS Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS or MPADS) are portable surface-to-air missiles. They are guided weapons and are a threat to low-flying aircraft, especially helicopters. Overview MANPADS were developed in the 1950s to provide military ...
missile east of
Rijeka Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...
, near Serb-occupied Krajina during a flight from Zagreb to Split. The tail control surfaces were damaged, the left engine failed and four military passengers (from the US, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands) were injured by shrapnel and splinters. The crew managed to land the aircraft at Rijeka Airport, and Spanish technicians were later able to repair the aircraft's damages and bring it back to service in 48 hours. The incident, which according to NATO took place in a zone under Croat control,El País, 9 March 1994 may have been a Bosnian Serb response to the 28 February shootdowns and, though it failed to name a perpetrator, NATO labeled the incident a "provocation", while Croat defence officials blamed "Serb terrorists" and claimed that more than one missile was fired at the aircraft.


Bosnian Serb pilots

The Bosnian Serb pilots involved in the incident were: * Capt. 1st Class Ranko VukmirovićLista gubitaka/ostecenja vazduhoplova u Ex-JRV od 1945 godine do danas
/ref> KIA. * Capt. 1st Class Zvezdan Pešić KIA. * Capt. 1st Class Goran Zarić ejected at low altitude, KIA. * Maj. Uroš Studen ejected near
Jajce Jajce (Јајце) is a town and municipality located in the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the 2013 census, the town has a population of 7,172 inhabitants, with ...
, survived. * Capt. 1st Class Zlatko Mikerević ejected probably near the villages of Bravsko and Crkveno, west of Ključ, survived. * Capt. 1st Class Zlatan Crnalić landed at Udbina Airport with his J-21 Jastreb Sr.nr. 24275 badly damaged; the aircraft later re-entered service.


See also

*
Mrkonjić Grad incident Scott Francis O'Grady (born October 12, 1965) is a former United States Air Force fighter pilot. On June 2, 1995, he was shot down over Bosnia and Herzegovina by a 2K12 Kub mobile SAM launcher and forced to eject from his F-16C into hostile t ...


Notes


References


Further reading

*Philip Handleman, ''Combat in the Sky: The Art of Air Warfare'', Zenith Press 2003. .


External links


31st Fighter WingSTING OF THE BLACK VIPERTRIPLE OVER THE BALKANS
{{Yugoslav wars 1994 in Bosnia and Herzegovina 20th-century military history of the United States History of Banja Luka Air-to-air combat operations and battles 20th-century aircraft shootdown incidents Aviation accidents and incidents in 1994 Aviation accidents and incidents in Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnian War Combat incidents Conflicts in 1994 History of Republika Srpska February 1994 events in Europe