Zoran Radosavljević (pilot)

At the beginning of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, on 24 March 1999, Radosavljević was a member of the 127th Fighter Aviation "Vitezovi" Squadron, which was located at the Batajnica Air Base. On 26 March 1999, two days after the bombing began, Radosavljević and his colleague Colonel Slobodan Perić were ordered to take off and oppose NATO aviation. The Yugoslav Army's MiG-29 planes were in semi-working condition, incapable of air combat. The radar range of the NATO plane was 120 km, while the range of the MiG-29 was half that. After initially avoiding NATO missiles, they were both hit by a missile fired by American pilot Jeff Hwang. Perić survived but Radosavljević did not.

Radosavljević was posthumously awarded the Order of Bravery and promoted by decree of his commander. Today, the main street in Batajnica is named after him. Since 1999, the Faculty of Transportation he attended has been renamed after him and has been awarding an annual prize for the best student in Air Traffic. Posthumously, at the Batajnica airport, an award is given every year, which bears his name to the best department.

In 1996, he enrolled in postgraduate studies at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Transportation where he received his master's degree in June 1998. He became one of the leading experts in Serbia and Yugoslavia in the field of satellite navigation. In 1999, he prepared his doctorate.

Afterwards, he enrolled in the military high school, and then in the Aviation Academy. He was educated at the Marshal Tito General Aviation Military High School in Mostar, and then at the Aviation Military Academy in Pula and Zadar. After graduating from the military academy, he began his career as a military pilot in Belgrade in 1986 as a fighter pilot on a MiG-21 plane. In 1992, he was promoted to the rank of captain of the first class. In the same year, he completed retraining on a MiG-29 plane and became the youngest pilot in the squadron of MiG-29s in the Yugoslav Air Force.

Zoran Radosavljević (Serbian Cyrillic: Зоран Радосављевић; 26 February 1965 – 26 March 1999) was a Yugoslav fighter pilot who fought in the Kosovo War and came to prominence after he was killed during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

Radosavljević was born on 26 February 1965 in Priština, Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, Socialist Republic of Serbia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Since his father Svetozar was an officer of the Yugoslav People's Army, and because, due to the need for service, he often changed his place of residence, Zoran, together with his mother Radojka and sister Snežana, often moved. He spent his childhood throughout the former Yugoslavia, from Skopje, Kruševac to Belgrade. He graduated from the Starina Novak Elementary School in Belgrade.