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NATO-SERBIA-KOSOVO-CONFLICT-ANNIVERSARY
Serbian downed US stealth jet, then befriended pilot
SKORENOVAC, Serbia, March 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Twenty years ago, Zoltan Dani
achieved a miraculous military feat: wielding outdated missile equipment, his
army unit shot down an American F117 “stealth fighter” flying over Serbia as
part of NATO’s 1999 air strike assault.
The David-vs-Goliath victory was one of the most surprising achievements of
the Serbian side as it was battered by NATO bombs that began dropping 20
years ago on Sunday, in a bid to halt Belgrade’s war with Kosovo.
But in perhaps an even more remarkable twist, the retired army officer is
now close friends with the American pilot whose Nighthawk he brought down.
“Bingo,” Dani, now 62, recalls saying when he first learned he had struck
the American aircraft, which was touted as invisible to radar. The downing of
the F117 three days into the NATO assault earned Dani national hero status.
It was the first and only time a F117 has been shot down in combat, leading
celebratory Serbs to print shirts and posters with the slogan: “We didn’t
know it was invisible!”
After three months of air strikes, Serbia was forced to withdraw its troops
from Kosovo, where its forces had been battling ethnic Albanian separatists.
While the NATO intervention is celebrated as the basis of Kosovans’
liberation today, traumatic memories of the bombs remain deeply etched in
Serbia’s public memory.
But Dani and his US counterpart, Air Force pilot Dale Zelko, managed to put
their past behind them.
Around a decade ago, they started exchanging emails.
“It was important, among other things, to learn what kind of man he was,”
Dani, who is part of Serbia’s Hungarian minority, told AFP from his home in
eastern Skorenovac.
“After two to three years we decided together that it was time to meet.”
– ‘Message of peace’ –
That 2012 encounter, filmed in a documentary called ‘The Second Meeting’,
saw Zelko travel to Dani’s home where he had opened a bakery after retiring
from military service.
“When he arrived… I handed him an apron, he took it and we worked
together,” recalls Dani with a grin.
In the documentary, the two men are seen rolling out pastry dough together
before visiting a Serbian museum where tattered pieces of the F117 are on
display.
“Hey, that’s my stuff,” Zelko jokes, pointing at the display.
They also visit the field where the American pilot landed after he ejected
from his aircraft in a parachute.
“As soon as I saw those missiles I thought, oh man, they got me,” Zelko
says standing in the field.
At a screening of the film in Belgrade in 2012, Zelko addressed the room.
“I am sorry for your suffering and sorrow, loss and anguish,” he said,
visibly shaken.
“War is not between normal, average people, it is between the governments,”
he added.
Dani says he was initially hesitant about making contact with his former
war foe, but ultimately decided it would “be an opportunity to send a common
message of peace and understanding”.
The following year he visited Zelko and his family at their home in New
Hampshire.
Now they still talk “once or twice a week by email”, reports Dani.
Near his computer is a large chunk of dark metal — another recovered piece
of the F117 — leaning against the wall.
BSS/AFP/RY/10:40 hrs