Media Conference by Defence Minister and Chief of the General Staff

Defence Minister informed on the establishment of a 8-member board, composed of aviation experts (investigators, flight and maintainance experts, aviation medicine and law) entrusted with establishing the causes and circumstances of the crash in the interest of security of the military air traffic and the prevention of the accidents of the kind in the future.

The Minister also stressed that the relevant political subjects, both in the government and in the opposition, were to bring decision on the new air force and the plans for the future in that regard.«We shall have to decide to adopt a new system and rto each a consensus on the modality of protection of the national air space», stated the Minister.
The Minister commended the abiility demonstrated by the pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Stanko Hrženjak, in completing the flight prudently, safely and calmly. 

The Chief of the General Staff, General Drago Lovrić emphasised that the MIGs 21 were obsolete back in 2010, and were to be superseded by new fighter aircraft in 2011. «However, without the respective decisions in place the only solution at hand, prompted by necessity, was to extend the service for the MiGs 21 and have them overhauled. The solution was applied in the interest of protection of the capabilities of the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence and its staff, who constitute our biggest asset», explained General Lovrić.

«In view of the necessity of the protection of the air space and of meeting the respective NATO obligation, the only solution available was to extend the service period for the MIGs, which was seen as a short-term solution», said General Lovrić.

The General also stated that the year 2016 was the deadline for the decision on procuring new fighter aircraft.  «The option to introduce new fighter aircraft, jointly with our Allies and to build the capability either within NATO’s Smart Defence or in the EU’s Pooling and Sharing, would imply costs ranging from 300 – 400 mil kuna. The sharing of the cost, the maintenance of the aircraft, the location of the training and the procedures to apply in the situations demanding the protection of individual nations’ air spaces are matters of national sovereignty and will be agreed with the Allies. Croatian pilots are among the world’s top pilots, trained for operating under any conditions», concluded General Lovrić.

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