Joint American-Croatian night flight training

The several-weeks training by the U.S. instructors, all costs of flying and equipment worth of total of one million dollars was funded by the U.S. Government.

This equipment is modern and of high quality, which allows the Croatian crew helicopters safer and more efficient flying at night, and the possibility of landing on the unlit terrain. Besides the contribution to effective assistance to the civilian population, such as search and rescue operations at night on the heavy terrain and the easier and safer conduct of medical flights, this training and equipment will contribute to more effective participation of members of the Croatian Air Force in the KFOR mission in Kosovo.

Four pilot crews and technicians of Mi-171 helicopters from the 91st Airbase from Zagreb and four pilots of Bell-206 helicopter from the 93rd Airbase from Zadar were trained by experienced American instructors in the first cycle of training.

The commander of the Training Task Force Major Mihael Krizanec expressed satisfaction with the organization and conduct of training, emphasizing the contribution of financial, organizational, and empirical support of the U.S., as well as readiness of the 93rd Air Force Base for the acceptance of other troops and support in the implementation of training, and in particular, he stressed the importance of acquiring new skills for members of Croatian helicopters.
Head of the U.S Office of Defense Cooperation to Croatia Colonel Charles Davis expressed his satisfaction with the US-Croatian cooperation pointing out that all the costs of training and equipment was covered by the Government of the United States, and stressing the very high level of training of Croatian helicopter pilots who have previously participated in the training. The next training cycle, which is part of the systematic training of helicopter crews to fly at night, will be conducted in May this year, and the commander of the Training Task Force will be Major Dragan Andrijevic.