Beware of AAA & Wedding Parties....!!!!

[BLW Skylark 4]

From The Times today (13/10/03):-

"It is a time honoured custom in the Balkans to fire guns into the air at the climax of a raucous wedding party.

Many people have thus been killed by a stray bullet, but a greater calamity overtook the central Serbian village of Ratina yesterday, when their inebriated menfolk shot down an aircraft by accident.

As wedding guests in Ratina, 100 miles west of Belgrade, raised their rifles to the air, no one noticed the single engined Utva-75 two seater sports plane approaching.

The rest of the story is told by Zoran Vukadinovic, who witnessed the wedding and its tragic aftermath. "I heard shots from a wedding party which was very close to the crash site" Mr Vukadinovic said. "Then I saw the plane in flames.
It was shot in the left wing. A few minutes later, while attempting a crash landing, it was caught in overhead power cables."

The pilot,, who was apparently unlicensed, and a passenger were said to be seriously injured. The flight was said to have been unauthorised."

From Foreign Staff.

[S76Heavy]

With an unlicenced pilot chances are, he might have messed up the landing anyway, let alone with a few holes in his wing tank and a fuel fire adding extra pressure..
At least it made the day very memorable for all involved..:}

[STS]

My cousin's nuptuals are forthcoming. I shall post the details here when I have them for the safety of all of you in the Balkans. As there are over a 1000 guests invited and no doubt a couple of Kalashnikovs, I shall find out whether a no-fly zone can be declared. Bloody Balkans.

[piniped]

Of course up in Afghanistan, they have the same tradition...only difference was a few times the "coalition" aircraft bombed and strafed the party too to show them a new one.

[steamchicken]

Fly safe - with AC130 support if wedding parties are suspected...