Six days in the forest

"We are the masters of our sky," Radovan Karadzic declared on Saturday, May 3rd, during the Pale-TV program "President's Question-Time" in which he elaborated on an earlier comment about the cancellation of all relations with the UN. The pretext for the statement was a question about the shooting down of an American jet near Banja Luka the day before. "Those who are bombing us are committing a crime. The fewer there are above us, fewer of them will fall". He also added that he has not yet been "fully briefed" about the incident.

The incident can now be reconstructed almost up to its conclusion. On Friday, June 2nd, around 3:30pm, two F-16 jets from NATO's Southern Wing were on regular patrol overseeing the no-fly zone over Bosnia, in the region of Banja Luka. Several hours earlier (between 10:00 and 11:20 am) NATO air force bombed an ammunition dump near Pale (Ravna Planina) in reprisal for the Serb shelling of civilian targets in Tuzla which left 76 dead and more than 150 wounded. According to the report by the pilot who led the NATO patrol, two jets flew above the clouds over Banja Luka which was apparently a mistake since experience from Vietnam indicated that missiles fired from the ground are particularly difficult to spot through the clouds. Two SAM-6, radar-guided missiles were fired at the patrol. The head of patrol also claims that the Serbs switched on the radar at the last possible moment before firing the missiles, which is the proper procedure since it minimizes the possibility of evasive action by the jets or firing of HARM missiles which are guided towards the radar on the ground. The first missile missed the patrol and was spotted by the pilots, while the second one exploded immediately below Captain Scott O'Grady's jet and split it in half. Captain O'Grady, 29, managed to eject from the wreck and open his parachute. Subsequent analysis of the event point towards the possibility that the jet's electronic interference devices were either out of order or switched off. Instantly, NATO introduced new procedures for flights over Bosnia: all patrols must be escorted by jets specialized for electronic counteraction ("Fantom" F-4G and EC-111) and equipped with HARM missiles ready to be fired at every radar on the ground turned on during the flight.

Captain Scott O'Grady managed to eject from the jet somewhere in the vicinity of Mrkonjic Grad and parachuted close to the area above which he was hit. It seems that he immediately got hold of the nearby mountain and started walking, staying away from populated areas and roads. During the six days he covered the distance of some 30 kilometers, hardly a bad result considering the difficult terrain and the dangers he had to evade. At the same time, America was in the state of panic, accompanied by a chilling, but nonetheless sweet thought: our boy is lost in some God forsaken place in the Balkans.

The announcement on June 2nd that a jet had been shot down saw the beginning of the search and rescue operation which consisted of flying over the area tuned into frequencies which the pilot could use to send a signal. US President Bill Clinton expressed his "deep concern". On the following day, UN special envoy Yasushi Akashi announced that the Bosnian Serbs informed the UN that they had captured the pilot of the shot down plane. However, on the same day, the President of the US Army Joint Chief of Staff,

General John Salikashvilli said that the search for the missing pilot continues: "We do not know where he is, or what state he is in". He added that a short signal from the pilot's transmitter had been picked up. On Sunday, May 4th, Jim Mitchel, representative of the NATO Southern Wing command in Naples, expressed the first doubts in the claims by the Serbian Army (VRS) that they hold the missing pilot: "We have no news or independent confirmation of the Serbian claim. We would like to see some evidence that the pilot did indeed manage to eject - a photograph of the pilot, his parachute, his uniform or any other possession". US announced that they had indirect contacts with the Serbs on this particular issue. While the very same evening, Ratko Mladic, the Serb military commander, declared that he is "willing to discuss the fate of the American pilot only with Bernard Jeanvier, UN commander for the whole of former Yugoslavia". It later turned out that Serbian claims about the capture of the pilot were all a mere bluff.

American Defence Secretary, William Perry, called General Mladic's statements "some kind of a brutal game" and announced that the US had "inconsistent reports from Pale and Belgrade", but have "no evidence from their own sources that the pilot managed to eject from the wreck". On Monday, June 5th, American Air force Chief of Staff, General Ronald Fogelman, said that his men picked up weak signals from the pilots transmitter. On the following day the existence of signals was confirmed on several occasions, but it was emphasised that it does not necessarily mean that the pilot was alive. Bosnian Serb Government spokesman Omer (also known as Jovan or John) Zametica told CNN that the Serbs still had not yet captured the pilot but were doing their best. He added that the soldiers who fired the SAM-6 missile did so "on their own initiative and without permission" which is why they were immediately arrested. All this time, Captain Scott O'Grady was busily hiking towards Mount Grmec, switching on his transmitter at the previously agreed times in order to save on battery power, and eating whatever he could find.

Jets flying over the area where they thought the pilot could have parachuted spotted some light signals on the ground on Wednesday, June 7th, but they concluded that it could not be the missing pilot since he neither had the neccesary equipment nor was he instructed to emit any such signals. However, radio signals continued to appear at regular intervals.

On Thursday, June 8th, at 2:30 a.m., Captain O'Grady managed to reach a location from which he could establish a direct two-way radio link with the rescue team. US Marines stationed on board a ship in the Adriatic were immediately alerted, and two large CH-53 helicopters took off carrying 50 soldiers under the command of Colonel Martin Bernt.

Simultaneously, in close coordination with the Marines, several jets took of from NATO bases in Italy in order to provide close air support.

At the break of dawn on June 8th the helicopters got in touch, on the radio, with Captain O'Grady, and - while the jets thundered over their heads - landed. The Marines unfolded in a defensive formation, while Captain O'Grady ran out of the forest and hopped on board the chopper. "He was in excellent condition", Colonel Bernt later told reporters; "somewhat stiff from cold and exhaustion, but very much on his feet". Colonel Bernt also said that during take-off, the helicopters were attacked with small arms fire and a missile but neither were hit or returned fire. Captain Grady was unhurt, save for a small burn on the neck which he sustained when abandoning his jet.

Of course the event was used in the appropriate way: a press conference was held in the American airbase in Aviano, Italy; Bill Clinton rang the pilot's family while the Generals used the opportunity to remind everyone what a good thing training is, since the man survived and was rescued mainly because he was a conscientious cadet. It would be of no surprise if, at this very moment, a film script is being completed in Hollywood, while the Aviano airbase is under siege by the agents of large publishing houses throwing in offers for publishing rights for Captain Scott O'Grady's life story.