The pilot was only a few meters short Ziki Maglić that on September 11, 1973, he flew over the mountain peak of Babin zub, but, presumably because of the fog, he saw the rocks too late - the fuselage of the aircraft hit that peak on Maganik at 10.21:XNUMX a.m.
All 35 passengers and six crew members died.
Today, half a century after one of the biggest plane crashes in this region, it is witnessed by a sign placed on Mount Maganik and some parts of the long-dead JAT "Caravel SE-210", whose flight on the route Skopje-Titograd-Sarajevo-Zagreb is forever interrupted in the Montenegrin Vrlet.
And back in 1973, children, elders, students, soldiers, professors, workers of all Yugoslav nations and nationalities died together under Baba's tooth.
The identification of the bodies of the dead took 10 days. 26 bodies were identified, the remains of other passengers and crew members were buried in a common grave at the Čepurci cemetery in Podgorica.
JAT's plane was piloted by Žika Maglić at the time of the accident. When it flew over Mojkovac, the so-called radio beacon was not working in that place. As it was already time for the "caravel" to start landing, flight control in Golubovci joined the communication with the pilot... The connection with the plane was cut off at 10.21 am.
The investigation showed that the flight controllers in Golubovci did their job according to regulations and no one was held responsible for the tragedy.
After the tragedy, the assumption remained that the pilot saw the fatal peak of Baba's Tooth, which was shrouded in fog, at the last moment and tried unsuccessfully to raise the plane, which hit a cliff with its tail section and disintegrated in an explosion.
MOUNTAINEERING ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION
How the accident happened was of interest to numerous scientists, writers, journalists, aviators, investigators... but also mountaineers. Ivan Savić, a member of the Visokogorci Club of Montenegro.
While, organized by that club, a hundred mountaineers trod towards the plane crash site, in order to once again pay tribute to their shadows, Savić told "Vijesti" what he found out during the research, as well as where his desire to search for the truth about the accident came from. happened a decade before he was born.
"It all started a long time ago. As I am originally from the north-east of Montenegro, July and August were reserved for going to the countryside with my father and mother. Since my brother and sister are much older than me, they were already staying in Podgorica, and I, as a later born child, always went with them. Always, when they came to Mioska and as they started climbing up Crkvine, when Maganik appeared in the distance, the father said: 'That's Ivan Maganik, and those teeth you see are Baba's teeth. A plane crashed there a long time ago'. So, since I was a child, I have had that moment of Maganik in my head, and then the plane crash at Maganik," says Savić.
41 people lost their lives in a plane crash that happened half a century ago in the mountains of Maganik
He also explains how many years later he began to investigate what happened - all out of pure curiosity.
"Even at a young age, I became interested in airplanes as a means of transportation, which fascinated me in terms of the achievements of a man who managed to fly in this way. Along with learning about the plane crash from my earliest childhood, I also started to be interested in accidents. It is interesting that, despite my interest, it was only this year, at the age of 40, that I rode a plane for the first time, and it was a bit of a 'pull - pull'. It is symbolic that I boarded the plane on the fiftieth anniversary of the plane crash that I have been researching for a long time," said Savić.
He reminds that the plane crash in the mountains of Maganika is one of the biggest in the history of the Yugoslav Air Force, and then adds that he first sought information about it on the Internet at the beginning of this millennium.
A little later, in 2011, he went to the National Library of Montenegro "Đurađ Crnojević" in Cetinje and asked for all the newspaper articles about that tragic event:
"I was looking for all the copies of 'Politics' and 'Victory', later and 'Illustrated Politics' from the period of September 11, 1973 and a few months later, in which texts about the plane crash were published. I extracted, that is, photographed a lot of texts and made my own archive at home. Purely for some of his own curiosity. It was not a question of any scientific work".
THE STEWARD WAS WAITING FOR THE "CARAVEL" IN SARAJEVO
Savić also asked the National Library for copies of daily newspapers published the year after the accident, because the court process was going on at that time.
"All this was preceded by what I found out on the Internet in 2002 and a year later. Looking for information, I managed to get in touch with the flight attendant who was waiting in Sarajevo for that flight from Titograd to board and start his shift. I exchanged two emails with him. He explained to me how radio communications worked back then, that the main centers were in Zagreb and Belgrade, and all other flight controllers, even in the then Titograd, had connections with a much smaller range," he said.
Parts of the plane and remains of the body found on both sides of Baba's tooth, so it is assumed that at that moment the pilot saw that he was in a mountain massif and tried to raise the aircraft - it was too late, he hit Baba's tooth a few meters below the peak. That's how close it was to fly over", says Savić
He says that during the investigation of the accident, he read numerous testimonies from the residents of the villages of Rovač, which are below Mganik - some claimed to have heard the impact of the plane, while others claimed to have heard nothing.
"In all those documents and materials that I read, I came across completely different testimonies, but what is absolutely certain is that several hours passed until the authorities determined where the plane that disappeared from the radar was. A lot of time passed until they got to the wreckage of the plane and, unfortunately, to the victims. I read the statements of the rescuers about that terrible tragedy and the scene they found. In the first days after the accident, it was reported in the media, and later during the court process, that several parameters did not work - the lighthouse in Mojkovac, that is, the antenna on the ground, did not work, that the plane was serviced the day before the accident and that its gyroscope was changed, that is, a device used for navigation and measuring angular velocity. I read that the correct gyro was replaced the day before. It was established that the plane changed its course immediately before the impact and ended up above Brodarevo, where it should not have been at all, it turned left there and then the plane was several kilometers off course. Clouds, or fog, came over Maganik, and when he came into contact with flight control in Titorado. The data on the plane informed him that he was already close to Titograd, but the air traffic control had no sight of him. They were communicating about where the plane was, or where it wasn't, and at that moment communication with the crew of the 'caravel' was lost. That was the end for all the people who were in the plane that crashed into Maganik", recounts Savić the information he obtained by reading and examining the voluminous documents.
PARTS OF THE AIRCRAFT FIRE FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE TOP
He explains that the parts of the plane and the remains of the body were found on both sides of Baba's tooth and that it is assumed that at that moment the pilot saw that he was in the mountain massif and tried to lift the aircraft:
"He tried to avoid the accident, but it was too late - a few meters below the top, he hit Baba's tooth. That's how close it was to flying over".
Savić, who has been actively mountain climbing since 2008, explains that the club of which he is a member - Visokogorci, orientated most of its actions towards Maganik, where they built a mountain lodge in the Đatlo mountain range.
"Through various actions, we popularize this mountain, especially the marvelous Trešteni vrh, and at the same time we do not forget the plane crash that happened here. On Međeđe vrh, there is a plaque dedicated to the victims of the accident, which was erected in 2003 by representatives of JAT and the JAT sports club. Here in the foothills, we often talk about it and these days we are. We talked about the testimonies of the locals - some of them found burning parts of the wardrobe hundreds of meters away, or several kilometers away, probably blown away by the wind. Someone found a brand new shirt on the road. We also learned that after the accident, given that the rescuers arrived late due to the inaccessibility of the terrain, and that night fell very quickly, the people from Mrtvo Duboko and the rescuers organized guards. They did this partly because of the old custom of not leaving the dead alone overnight, or because of courtship, but also because of the large number of different wild animals, so as not to destroy the remains of the victims," he said.
A minute of silence at the top, from the sky a tribute to the victims paid by the wings of the plane
Yesterday, JAT pilot Dušan Petrović from Nikšić laid flowers at the place where twenty years ago a plaque was placed in memory of the victims of the plane crash.
Dozens of mountaineers, who arrived at Međeđa vrh from almost all Montenegrin cities, but also from the surrounding countries, paid their respects to the 41 victims with a minute of silence.
Some of them arrived at Maganik yesterday from Katun Đatlo, and others came from the Nikšić side. Everyone was at the top with the same goal - to bow to the shadows of the fallen passengers and the crew of JAT's "caravel SE-210".
At Međeđa vrh, Dragan Bulatović from Visokogorac spoke about the accident, and after a minute's silence was held in honor of the victims, pilot Dragan Šoro Ivančević and his crew "paid homage" to their shadows from the air in a small plane.
They flew over the place where 11 people lost their lives on September 1973, 41.
The names of the victims
Thirty-five passengers and six crew members died on September 11, 1973, when the JAT caravel YU-AHD hit the rock cliff of Baba's Tooth, the memorial plaque says.
The names of the victims of the accident are also written on it: Ljubo Kujundžić, Đorđi Cvoevski, Dragoljub Dubak, Petar Trpenovski, Nikola Georgijevski, Nikola, Marija and Biljana Malenkovi, Azra Kurt, Sande Peovski, Stojan Pavlovski, Risto Manojlov, Zoran Mitrovski, Kosta Bojković, Živko Kolevski, Dušan Adamovski, Marko Delovski, Krstinko Trajčevski, Marina Biserska, Marta and Drago Ivanovski, Kiro Jančevski, Lidija Belčevska, Božidar Marković, Ljiljana Milačić, Hasan, Ajša and Afrim Asani, Stojče Stojmirovski, Ahmed Đemazi, Abazi Kadri, Duško Ljubnić, Sretanka Bojanović, Saša Šasivari and Zarija Dragović. Below them are written the names of the crew members - captain Živojin Maglić, co-pilot Nikola Vojvodić, pilot-navigator Karel Bizjak, stewardess Jasmina Narandžić's purser, stewardess Biljana Marjanović, stewardess and steward Žarko Bošković.
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