Banja Luka incident

Coordinates: 44°32′8.54″N 16°34′57.42″E / 44.5357056°N 16.5826167°E / 44.5357056; 16.5826167
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Banja Luka incident
Part of the Bosnian War and Operation Deny Flight

Artist's depiction of the incident
Date28 February 1994
Location
Southwest of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
44°32′8.54″N 16°34′57.42″E / 44.5357056°N 16.5826167°E / 44.5357056; 16.5826167
Result NATO victory
Belligerents
 Republika Srpska

 NATO

Strength
6
J-22 Oraos
 4+
F-16s
Casualties and losses
4 aircraft shot down[1][a]
1 aircraft crashed[3][4]
3 pilots killed
1 wounded		 None

The Banja Luka incident, on 28 February 1994, was an incident in which six

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 fighters southwest of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina 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.[5]

Bombing of Novi Travnik

In February 1994, the

J-22 Orao aircraft that were bombing the "Bratstvo" military factory at Novi Travnik.[6]

In accordance with the

Combined Air Operations Center
was immediately able to clear the F-16s to attack.

Air engagement

The Bosnian Serb Jastrebs headed northwards, back to their base. At 6:45 a.m., the NATO fighters engaged their opponents. Captain Robert G. Wright fired an

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,

Adriatic
.

At the same time the other pair of F-16Cs, "Knight 25" and "Knight 26",

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. Two remaining Serb aircraft were able to land as they ran out of fuel at Udbina Air Base in the Serbian Krajina in present-day Croatia.[8]

The USAF credited three kills to

Captain Robert Gordon "Wilbur" Wright,[9] flying F-16C-40 #89-2137/RS,[10] using an AIM-120 AMRAAM and two AIM-9 Sidewinders; and one kill using an AIM-9 Sidewinder to Captain Stephen L. "Yogi" Allen[11] flying F-16C-40 #89-2009/RS[12]
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[13] while trying to escape in low-level flight.[14]

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

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.[15]

The crew managed to land the aircraft at Rijeka Airport, and Spanish technicians were later able to repair the aircraft's damage and bring it back to service in 48 hours.[16] The incident, which according to NATO took place in a zone under Croat control,[17] may have been a Bosnian Serb response to the 28 February shootdowns[18] 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.[17]

Bosnian Serb pilots

The

Bosnian Serb
pilots involved in the incident were:

  • Capt. 1st Class Ranko Vukmirović[14] †
  • Capt. 1st Class Zvezdan Pešić[14] †
  • Capt. 1st Class Goran Zarić[14] ejected at low altitude, †
  • Maj. Uroš Studen[14] ejected near Jajce, survived.
  • Capt. 1st Class Zlatko Mikerević[14] ejected probably near the villages of Bravsko and Crkveno, 14 kilometres (9 mi) west of Ključ, survived.
  • Capt. 1st Class Zlatan Crnalić[14] 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

Notes

  1. AFSOUTH, NATO, and the USAF
    .

References

  1. ^ "USAF F-16s shoot down 4 Serb attack aircraft – F-16 News". f-16.net.
  2. ^ AFSOUTH Fact sheets Archived 2006-08-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Serbian officially admitted 5 Aircraft lost
  4. ^ "Hronika Republike Srpske Krajine www.krajinaforce.com". krajinaforce.com.
  5. ^ "First NATO Military Action".
  6. ISBN 978-1-59884-530-3
    .
  7. ^ Call sign of the aircraft
  8. ^ Owen, Robert C. (1997). Deliberate Force: A Case Study in Effective Air Campaign. Maxwell Air Base, Alabama: Air University Press. p. 405.
  9. ^ Capt. Robert G. Wright nickname (sometimes a.k.a. Capt. Bob G. Wright)
  10. ^ "Airframe Details for F-16 #89-2137". f-16.net.
  11. ^ Capt. Stephen L. Allen nickname (sometimes a.k.a. Capt. Steve L. Allen)
  12. ^ "Airframe Details for F-16 #89-2009". f-16.net.
  13. ^ "See the aircraft's tail picture on Bushev F-16 u praksi". Archived from the original on 2011-10-14. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Lista gubitaka/ostecenja vazduhoplova u Ex-JRV od 1945 godine do danas
  15. ^ "La OTAN considera una "provocación" el ataque a un avión militar español". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). 1994-03-09. Archived from the original on 5 December 2016. Retrieved 2017-05-05.
  16. ^ "Ejército del aire. Ala 37". www.ejercitodelaire.mde.es. Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  17. ^ a b El País, 9 March 1994
  18. ^ Air Defense Artillery. U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School. 1996. p. 19.

Further reading

  • Philip Handleman, Combat in the Sky: The Art of Air Warfare, Zenith Press 2003.
    ISBN 978-0-7603-1468-5
    .

External links
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