Aircraft

Although Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic has announced the purchase of new military jets for Croatia's air force, the idea is still far from realisation, a defence analyst said.

Grabar Kitarovic announced the news on Saturday in an interview for the daily newspaper Vecernji list.

Photo: Airbus

BELGRADE - The Serbian ministries of defence and interior have signed a contract with Airbus Helicopters to buy nine Airbus H145M helicopters, the Defence Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Serbia will buy nine H-145M helicopters manufactured by Airbus Helicopters, it was announced on Thursday.

A contract to this effect was signed in Belgrade by the company and the Serbian ministries of defense and internal affairs.

A problem with the flaps and wrong decisions on behalf of the pilots were recorded by the black box recovered yesterday, according to the Interfax. Unconfirmed information say that the last word from the pilot was “we are going down”.

However, what is not known yet is why the mechanical malfunction occurred, which appears to be the reason that initiated the chain of events.

The main black box of the Syria-bound Russian military plane that crashed into the Black Sea with 92 people onboard has been found in a massive ongoing search operation, authorities said Dec. 27.

Preliminary investigations have confirmed that a plane that crashed in the Colombian mountains last month killing 71 people including most of a Brazilian football team was out of fuel, officials said Dec. 26.

Divers have discovered one of the black boxes of the Russian TU-154 plane which crashed on Sunday in the Black Sea, reported TASS, citing a source from the security forces.

At the tail end of the plane, there are two more boxes which have not been found yet.

The overhaul and upgrade of the six MiG-29 fighter jets donated to Serbia by Russia will cost 185 mln euros.

They could start flying at the end of 2017, Serbian Defence Minister Zoran Djordjevic said on Friday.

Monday is a day of mourning in Russia in honour of the victims of the crash of a Russian military plane TU-154 in the Black Sea.

A Russian Tupolev Tu-154 airliner with 92 passengers on board crashed in the Black Sea at 5:25’ a.m. local time (2:40’ GMT). The airplane took off from Adler near Sochi and it was on its way to the Russian Hmeymim airbase in Latakia, Syria, carrying the famous Alexandrov Ensamble (a.k.a. Red Army Choir) for a concert ahead of New Year’s Eve.