05.06.2010.
Plane salvaged without any harm to the environment
The Orao air craft which crashed three days ago into Gruza Lake near Knic due to the failure of the left landing gear, was safely salvaged on Saturday at 14:00.the salvaging operation was performed by the SAF River Flotilla expert team at 10 m depth. The tank had no fuel therefore there was no leak of the hydraulic liquid, so the water of the lake remained intact.
After salvaging the plane, LTG Miloje Miletic, SAF CHOD, stated that this operation had been undertaken with utmost urgency in order to avoid any possible hazard to the environment and to continue with the investigation which will determine what had caused the malfunction, as LTG Miletic remarked, saying hat the most important thing was for the pilot Jocic to return home quickly, to be with his family and to return to his unit, for the sake of trust the people have in the SAF.General took this opportunity to once again state “that it is on the state to take this a s a serious warning sign of the poor condition our air force is in and that it needs significant material funds to repair the damage it has sustained in 1999, when it sustained the greatest damage, so we expect the country to start investing seriously into our air force”, as SAF CHOD remarked.
In the words of Lt. Col. Milos Jakovljevic, commander of the river flotilla, the operation of salvaging the plane from Gruza Lake, went down fine and without any problemsMajor Slobodan Jocic is recovering at MMA and he is stable. ON Thursday, 3 June, he had to catapult himself after directing the plane into the Gruza Lake, due to a malfunction of the left landing gear, thus avoiding any possible harm t third persons.
