picture 190167

Worn out after a decade of intensive service, the Serbian MiG-29 fleet was in urgent need of an overhaul and included only a handful of flyable aircraft. This example (construction number 2960525142) entered service with the 127th Fighter Squadron (204th Fighter Aviation Regiment) on 20 April 1988 and received the serial number 18113. On 25 March 1999, Captain 1st Class Zoran Radosavljevic was scrambled in this jet to intercept a ‘high-flying target’: although his radar failed, the pursuit took Radosavljevic into the airspace of neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was shot down by an F-15C from the 48th Fighter Wing, USAF, resulting in the death of the pilot. The inset shows the crest of the 127th Fighter Squadron. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)