Antonio Bronik via ReutersCrashed drone carrying an aerial bomb in Zagreb (photo from March 11, 2022)
INTERNATIONAL – A Soviet-designed military drone that crashed Thursday in Zagreb was carrying an aerial bomb, Croatia’s defense minister said Sunday, March 13, deploring “shortcomings” in the response of some NATO allies.
“We found parts of an aerial bomb on the device … and for now we can say that this is an aerial bomb that was used on Soviet-made aircraft,” Croatian Defense Minister Mario Banozic told reporters.
Croatian authorities said on Saturday that the vehicle “launched on Ukrainian territory” was a Tupolev Tu-141 Strizh, a remote-controlled aircraft produced in the 1970s and 1980s for the needs of the Soviet Army, which was used for reconnaissance missions.
According to the minister, this drone weighing more than 6 tons has undergone “modifications (…) by all indications in recent times.” “Found traces of explosives and other elements suggest that this device was not intended for reconnaissance,” Banozich said.
200 meters from residential area
He did not indicate whether the bomb exploded and was unable to specify its type. The wreckage of the drone and fragments of the bomb will be transported “to the military zone, where a detailed analysis will be carried out,” he explained.
The car crashed on Thursday evening in a park located six kilometers from the center of Zagreb, next to the university campus, which is home to 4,500 students, and about 200 meters from a residential area, without any casualties. 40 cars parked in the parking lot were damaged.
Investigators also found a “black box” of the car, which, according to the minister, should allow the coordinates of the trajectory recorded by the radar to determine its starting point.
He said the drone crash will be discussed at the NATO ministerial meeting on Wednesday, and in particular “the failures that occurred in Romania and Hungary.”
Croatian authorities say the plane was in Hungarian airspace for about 40 minutes and Croatia was not notified. According to the same source, before crashing in Zagreb, the drone flew for seven minutes in Croatian space. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Saturday expressed regret over the lack of coordination within NATO over the “incident”.
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