CINS: The flight over Uvac, which endangered protected birds, may not have been reported

Even after the inspection, the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate did not determine who flew by helicopter over the Uvac Special Nature Reserve on July 24, thus endangering the offspring of the protected bird species: the griffon vulture, according to knew the CINS.

They do not exclude from the Flight Management and Control the possibility that the flight was not reported.

The helicopter then disturbed the griffon vulture cubs during the flight over the Uvac Special Nature Reserve (SRP), causing seven to fall from the nest.

The Serbian Center for Investigative Journalism (CINS) wrote in October that even two months later, it was not known who was piloting the plane.

As it appears now, authorities will not even be able to determine who flew, believes CINS.

After SRP Uvac reported the case on August 4, the Civil Aviation Directorate began an extraordinary inspection, it is stated in the response of that service to the CINS. A statement was made from the head of the reserve guard service that the helicopter flight took place on July 24 after 6 p.m.

The inspectors of the Directorate requested from the Air Traffic Control of Serbia and Montenegro (SMATSA) flight plans for the aircraft that flew that day in central and southwestern Serbia, the wider region of SRP Uvac, radar images for those flights. , audio recordings of air traffic controllers and pilots.

Statements were taken from air traffic controllers and helicopter pilots whose flight routes were the closest to SRP Uvac.

However, Management stated that, based on available data, it was not possible to determine which aircraft was flying low over SRP Uvac at that time.

Considering that the Serbian Institute for Nature Protection previously told CINS that they did not issue conditions for flights over SRP Uvac, although those conditions were necessary for flights, they asked SMATSA who everything was in the previous year and a half. flew over that territory.

Flight control said at the beginning of its response that it was not obliged to keep data on air navigation services for more than 30 days from the time the service was provided, but they told CINS that from July 20 to August 4 they were submitted various aircraft flight plans. that were planned to fly in the Uvac Reserve area.

However, the data in question was not provided by SMATSA, which is why CINS complained to the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance.

“Considering the possibility that a pilot who did not submit a flight plan or is not a pilot of a civil aircraft may have made a low flight over SRP Uvac, it was not possible to identify the aircraft and determine the identity of the pilots who violated the flight rules and therefore endangered the habitats protected animal species ”, reads the response of the Directorate to the CINS.

The CINS also tried to obtain more information from SMATSA and replied that, on the day of the disputed flight, two helicopters took off from the vicinity of Belgrade in the direction of southwestern Serbia.

But they pointed out that “an inspection of the flight plans of these two helicopters determined that none of their routes passes through the Uvac Special Nature Reserve.”

SMATSA also responded that it does not rule out the possibility that someone may have flown in the Uvac reserve area without notifying Flight Control and without submitting a flight plan, at altitudes below which there is no SMATSA radar coverage.