06.04.1999 - Mig-29 combat flight - Boro Zoraja

[okopanja]

06.04.1999 - Mig-29 combat flight - Boro Zoraja

Pilot: Major Boro Zoraja

Airplane type: L-18 (MIG-29 9.12b)

Airplane ID: 18101

Time: April 6th 1999, 23:00

Take off: Airbase Ponikve

Landing: Airbase Lađevci

Flight length: 40 minutes

Interview with Major Boro Zoraja, pilot of MiG-29

1st video segment at 09:41

09:46 Narrator: While Major Milenković was waiting for a U2 mission, new orders were received at Ponikve airport.

09:55 Boro Zoraja: Exactly at the point when we went off duty and undressed for rest, around 23:00 the "Buzzer" (alert phone line) rang.

10:09 Boro Zoraja: I responded to the call. They gave us signal 1-into-number-1; take off, 6000 m, zone of expectation Kruševac, landing at airport Niš.

10:19 Major Milenković: "I will go to the car."

10:22 Major Milenković (loudly): "Number 1, lets go!"

10:24 Boro Zoraja: Once I sounded the alert, I started to dress.

10:31 Boro Zoraja: I took my uniform on, and hooked the upper part of the Anti-G suit, took Helmet into hand, and went to the vehicle together with Major Milenković.

10:42 Boro Zoraja: I continued dressing in the vehicle.

10:45 Boro Zoraja: The only thing I was thinking about was not to miss any of the details of the aircraft inspection and aircraft startup procedure.

10:51 Boro Zoraja: I did not rush when I was set into the aircraft, in order not to make a mistake.

11:01 Boro Zoraja: About other things I did not think about at all. You know, you think only about the assignment and that is your priority.

11:07 Boro Zoraja: You simply can not think about the family, friends or anybody else.

11:10 Boro Zoraja: You think only about the things you need to do at that moment.

11:15 ATC(radio): "Orao 356, full startup, as soon as possible to the runway!"

11:19 ATC(radio): "356th QFE 9-6-6, expectation zone Kruševac, 6000 m, report at traverse Užička Požega."

11:27 Boro Zoraja: I have confirmed, arrived in the zone Kruševac, reported arrival and they told me to take one of corso, left or right and await further instructions.

11:41 Boro Zoraja: I have made several 8s in the zone Kruševac, and at one moment, my SPO device for radiation signalling went wild.

11:53 Boro Zoraja: I heard the sound in headphones and SPO was fully lit and blinking.

11:57 Boro Zoraja: This means that I am locked by the enemy, who has already launched the missile(s) and that I have very little time to avoid the missiles.

12:06 Remark: story is interrupted and the narrator continues the story of Major Nebojša Nikolić. I will skip these parts and continue with the testimony of Boro Zoraja.

2nd video segment at 19:22

19:23 Narrator: Pilot Boro Zoraja is locked by enemy planes, missiles were launched at him and he had just a few seconds to attempt the escape manoeuvre.

19:36 Boro Zoraja: I pulled the stick onto one side, I do not remember which now, left or right and pulled up.

19:43 Boro Zoraja: I have pulled left and right, changed the turn, while climbing all the time, arriving at 8000 m, when I managed to drop their lock.

19:53 Boro Zoraja: The SPO device stopped showing a threat and there was no more sound in headphones

19:57 Boro Zoraja (radio to GCI officer): "Orao 356, I dropped outside of the lock, report the information on the enemy!"

20:03 Boro Zoraja (radio to GCI officer): "Olymp, Orao 356, do we hear each other. Please, Olymp 356, confirm if you hear me!"

20:11 Boro Zoraja: I repeated these messages several times, and while doing so, I started a free hunt, to scan and seek for the enemy

20:19 Boro Zoraja: I came to 6000 m and was on course between 130 and 140, and I detected 3 targets.

20:25 Boro Zoraja: I selected the nearest target and established the lock, the radar switched from scanning into targeting mode.

20:34 Boro Zoraja: That mode allows me to see the range of the targets.

20:38 Boro Zoraja: The target was at a distance of about 35 km, and was moving toward me.

20:43 Boro Zoraja: My next action was to flip the cover for missile launch trigger up, since we had a very high closure rate.

20:51 Boro Zoraja: It was just a few seconds and in the meantime he was already at a distance of 30 km, and at that moment I got spiked by them again, and SPO started to indicate I have been locked, while radar dropped the lock.

21:06 Boro Zoraja: My next reaction was simply to escape the missile launched at me.

21:12 Boro Zoraja: Again, 2000 m lower at ~4000 m, I managed to drop the lock, and started turning to search for them.

21:20 Boro Zoraja: I switched the radar into DOGON mode (pursuit mode) and started to chase after them.

21:20 Remark: While he speaks, the HUD is displayed showing active Radar and occasional targets. Note: this might not be original recording.

21:27 Boro Zoraja: At this point they were at the distance of 45 to 47 km, I locked the gas and chased them at the speed of 1000 km/h.

21:35 Boro Zoraja: What next! The only thing that worried me was that my missiles will not go off the rails, since I did not have the signal showing that the missiles are still mounted.

21:43 Boro Zoraja: I chased them for about 3 minutes, perhaps a bit more at that speed, while they moved toward south, toward heading 190.

21:55 Boro Zoraja: At that point I have been reaching the borders of (Northern) Macedonia and Bulgaria, when at some point I decided to abort.

22:04 Boro Zoraja: So what happened? The 3 targets split: 2 of them went to the left and right, while the 3rd continued straight.

22:15 Boro Zoraja: At that point I decided to interrupt the pursuit, turned the jet towards North and continued toward Niš.

22:15 Remark: According to later interview of Dragan Milenković, Boro Zoraja has landed at Lađevci airport, since at Niš airport there was no response over the radio.

22:20 Boro Zoraja: My flight was 40 minutes long, and this was the longest flight during the aggression.

22:25 Remark: story is interrupted again and the narrator continues the story of Major Nebojša Nikolić. I will skip these parts and continue with the testimony of Boro Zoraja.

3rd video segment at 50:40

50:40 Boro Zoraja: We were truly inferior, primarily due to having missiles of shorter range, and they could launch their missiles from distances of over 60 km at us.

50:53 Boro Zoraja: Accordingly, I had to get very close in order to achieve the conditions for the launch of missiles.

51:00 Boro Zoraja: This has to be under 30 km, in order for missiles to leave the rail, while they could do the same thing at distance of 60 km.

53:39 Boro Zoraja: Our radio connection with Operation Center and VOJIN systems, which are used for guidance, did not work, and essentially we had to rely on ourselves and onboard electronics.

53:39 Remark: VOJIN is acronym "vazduhoplovno osmatranje, javljanje i navođenje" - aerial surveillance, reporting and guidance.

53:53 Boro Zoraja: I got those enemy targets in free hunting (search mode).

54:01 Boro Zoraja: The only other thing I could do, was to accelerate toward them and hit them directly with my own jet, but doing this under night conditions is practically impossible.

Interview with Major Dragan Milenković, talks about the events after Boro Zoraja proceeded to land at Niš airport.

4th video segment at 46:29

46:29 Remark: This is only part of a much longer interview with Dragan Milenković. The part I have transcribed is the one where he talks what happened after Boro Zoraja proceeded to land at Niš airport.

46:29 Dragan Milenković: According to the fuel level, he got the command for landing.

46:37 Dragan Milenković: He could not land at Niš airbase. Since nobody responded over the radio at Niš, he landed at airbase Lađevci, near Kraljevo.

46:47 Dragan Milenković: Since the complete pilot and maintenance crews, and aircraft support vehicles have remained at Ponikve, we have relocated the crews and equipment to Lađevci.

47:06 Dragan Milenković: We have continued our duty within RV and PVO at airport Lađevci.

47:11 Host: Since the plan of U-2 spy airplane intercept mission attempt was cancelled, you have received the new mission orders, and if I am correct it was on April 8th?

47:28 Dragan Milenković: That is correct. After the landing in late ours on April 6th (to April 7th), we have relocated and arrived at airbase Lađevci during the night...

47:43 Dragan Milenković: After familiarization with the situation, upon inspection of the airplane, maintenance crew have established that one of the course verticals is not working.

47:43 Remark: During the original documentary the date of flight is incorrectly stated as April 7th. This was likely due to the fact that the original report could be written only after the night relocation.

Reconstructed flight

The provided map is rough reconstruction based on interview and publicly known information.

Sources

1. Niko nije rekao neću (drugi deo) - Nobody refused - part 2 (see above), author Slađana Zarić, director Boban Simojlović, journalist Vesna Ilić, montage Marija Bogićević, link.

2. Operation Allied Force - Air war over Serbia 1999 - volume 1, Bojan Dimitrijević, Lt. Gen. Jovica Draganić, link.

3. Pilot Dragan Milenković - Svi smo leteli u smrt! Neko je imao manje, neko više sreće!, link.

Credits

Ronin Gaijin, for review and english corrections

Aeria Gloria, for clarifying that DAGON, is actually DOGON, switch D

JJay, for review

Edited December 17, 2024 by okopanja
Updated, to latest format, Updated to land at Lađevci

[okopanja]

The following map is very rough reconstruction of the flight based on the interview, based on what was known to me so far.

It is provided to get you better idea about flight, with possible engagement assumptions. I welcome any additional information you may be able to provide, including possible alternative flight paths.

Map should not be cited as reference of absolute truth, since a number of assumptions were made while I tried to fit them together with all known facts:

- direction and distance after first launch,

- direction and distance after second launch,

- precise location point where Boro turned north. Note: course 190 was take into account as well as location of Airbase Petrovac as possible direction for blue.

- landing direction was assumed to be from Ribar approach. We do not know if he took instead landing over the city of Niš.

Edited November 24, 2024 by okopanja
reserved post

[okopanja]

Credits:
  - @Ronin_Gaijin, for review and english corrections
  - @AeriaGloria, for clarifying that DAGON, is actually DOGON, switch D
  - JJay, for review

Sources:

•  Niko nije rekao neću (drugi deo)  - Nobody refused - part 2 (see above), Author: Slađana Zarić, director: Boban Simojlović, journalist Vesna Ilić, montage: Marija Bogićević.
• "Operation Allied Force: air war over Serbia 1999 - volume 1", Bojan Dimitrijević, Lt. Gen. Jovica Draganić

Edited November 24, 2024 by okopanja

[Ronin_Gaijin]

36 minutes ago, okopanja said:

Credits:
  - @Ronin_Gaijin, for review and english corrections
  - @AeriaGloria, for clarifying that DAGON, is actually DOGON, switch D
  - JJay, for review

Sources:

•  Niko nije rekao neću (drugi deo)  - Nobody refused - part 2 (see above)
• "Operation Allied Force: air war over Serbia 1999 - volume 1", Bojan Dimitrijević, Lt. Gen. Jovica Draganić

You did a great job mate.
Always good to see stories like this become known to the general public!
Thank you for investing your time for this.

[kaurin]

Thank you so much for this!

[Teknetinium]

[okopanja]

Three small but very important updates: while searching for more information on other flights I have determined the following based on source 3 (added as separate section in first post)

1. After heading north to Niš, Boro Zoraja has landed at Lađevci Airbase, since radio contact with Niš was not established. This additional leg has brought the flight to exactly to the 40 minutes (originally software was calculating 37 minutes).

2. This finding also resolved the ambiguity with flight date (e.g. documentary graphic shows April 7th, and source 2 gives April 6th). At the time of landing at Lađevci (23:40 April 6th) Milenković was at Ponikve, and proceeded with the relocation of pilot/maintenance crews to Lađevci. My estimate shows that they have arrived no sooner than 01:30 on April 7th, likely later. His report could have not been written before April 7th, after the relocation was completed. Each report entry starts with date and time of the report and likely this caused confusion with the date in documentary.

3. As a result of the relocation, Milenković was on April 8th flying on #18101 airplane. The flight of Milenković will be published at later time.