In a bizarre incident on Thursday evening in Zagreb an unidentified crashed into a residential area in the Jarun neighborhood, leaving a large crater behind, with eyewitnesses reporting seeing parachutes and what looked like aircraft debris. Although there has been no official statement from the...
hr.n1info.com
Unidentified flying object crashes into a residential area in Zagreb
NEWS Author:N1 Zagreb, Hina11.03.2022
10:05
Source: Luka Stanzl/PIXSELL
In a bizarre incident on Thursday evening in Zagreb an unidentified crashed into a residential area in the Jarun neighborhood, leaving a large crater behind, with eyewitnesses reporting seeing parachutes and what looked like aircraft debris. Although there has been no official statement from the country's authorities as of Friday morning, local media, citing military analysts, speculate that the craft is likely to have been an Ukrainian Soviet-era drone.
The crash, which occurred shortly after 11 pm on Thursday evening, was accompanied by a loud noise. Police confirmed that the impact has left a 3-meter crater in a local road, and that two parachutes stuck in nearby trees have also been recovered. There were no reported injuries, although several parked cars have been damaged by the debris.
By Friday morning, the area has been cordoned off, with local authorities issuing a short press release saying that “there’s no reason to panic” and that further investigation is under way. Soon after the mysterious crash, photos and videos of the debris from the crash site began circulating on social media, finding their way to online sleuths and military analysts who identified the aircraft as a Soviet-era drone.
Aviation expert and editor-in-chief of a military technology website The War Zone, Tyler Rogoway,
wrote that he “strongly believes” that the craft was a Tu-141 Strizh reconnaissance drone which the Soviet army had used in the 1970s and 1980s. Ukraine, which is currently fighting a Russian invasion, is the only known operator of the missile-like aircraft, although the Russian military also has some units in storage.
The missile-like Tu-141 can fly at transonic speeds and is designed to collect intelligence along a predetermined flight path. After finishing the flight, the drone, which weighs more than 6 tons, is designed to land with the help of two parachutes, so it can be recovered and reused. It reportedly has a range of about 1,000 kilometers, which means it might have been launched from western Ukraine of southern Belarus.
“It must have severely malfunctioned and crossed over the entirety of Hungary or parts of neighboring countries and into Croatia from Ukraine… It has been reported that Ukraine has been putting the high-speed, Soviet-era drones to work in recent days following Russia’s invasion of the country,” Rogoway wrote.
Another possible explanation suggested by Rogoway is that Russia might have used one of their own old Tu-141 pulled out of storage to use as decoys in the ongoing invasion in Ukraine.
As of Friday morning, little else is known about the crash. Local media and analysts are now raising questions about Nato capabilities as it would seem that a 14-meters-long 6-ton missile can travel hundreds of kilometers through the airspace of one or several Nato countries without being detected.
Meanwhile, users on Croatian social media began speculating jokingly that the drone’s operators
might have simply mistyped the intended target, as Zagreb’s Jarun neighborhood shares the same name as Yarun, a town in Ukraine some 200 kilometers west of Kyiv.
Tweet translation: "
They typed in the wrong Jarun"
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From
Mysterious Drone That Crashed In Croatia May Have Got Lost Over Ukraine: Report
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(GTranslate of the article below)
Jutro nakon pada, kako se čini, izviđačkog drona iz Ukrajine, još nije objašnjeno kako je moguće da je letjelica neprimjetno preletjela protuzračnu obranu NATO zemalja.
dnevnik.hr
Experienced pilot shocked by the omission: "NATO protection is obviously not working. They will agree on something now, but how will they explain this ..."
Specialized teams on Jarun, crater and two parachutes found - 35 Photo: Igor Soban / Pixsell / Pixsell
The morning after the fall of what appears to be a reconnaissance drone from Ukraine,
it has not yet been explained how it is possible that the aircraft imperceptibly flew over the air defenses of NATO countries.
It is simply unbelievable that a military aircraft just flies over at least two NATO member states and falls in the middle of the capital of one of them. And it seems that this is exactly what happened late last night when the people of
Zagreb were alarmed by a powerful explosion near a large student dormitory and several popular clubs.
Ivan Selak, probably the most famous retired Croatian military pilot, is
shocked by the fact that the plane flew unnoticed through the airspace of NATO members. And he is sure that NATO will soon announce that the aircraft was not unnoticed, but he is convinced that this is not the case.
"NATO protection of the airspace of the member countries obviously does not work as it is written in the papers. "But they are denied by one fact. That facility fell on the capital of a NATO member. That is unacceptable," Selak tells us.
Although there is still not much official information about the facility,
most likely a Ukrainian drone, Selak assumes that it most likely entered Croatia from Hungarian air traffic.
As this is most likely an old aircraft, not a modern one, it is difficult to believe that it is "invisible" or poorly visible. "I can't believe he wasn't seen and followed. But he just got to the capital of a NATO member and fell there. This is really bizarre and funny. It made me laugh so much that no one reacted. There's probably panic in NATO now. airspace control and are now coming up with an answer, ”Selak says.
He assumes that the loss of fuel is the reason for the crash. "When a plane falls to the ground and nothing burns, then that's probably the reason. If there was fuel in it, there would be a fire," said a retired military pilot, who assumes the drone in Croatia ended because it "got out of control." . Such aircraft can be operated during the flight, but they can also plan the entire flight route.
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Further,
reporters were not allowed to come to the site and were threatened with an arrest.
And more,
that night, nearby residents have noticed smell of ammonia; again below is auto-translation with GTranslate:
Studenti doma Stjepan Radić u Zagrebu i prolaznici, dok odlaze na svoje dnevne obaveze, zastaju uz policijsku traku te i sami pokušavaju iz prve ruke vidjeti krater koji je nastao nakon sinoćnjeg p...
slobodnadalmacija.hr
'The smell of ammonia kept coming out of my nose all night. One man got sick, and it is a real miracle that no one was hurt because there are always people there!'; Dalmatians from a nearby students dormitory did not close their eyes for fear after the unusual detonation
March 11, 2022 - 09:15
Zeljko Puhovski / Cropix
Students of the Stjepan Radić dormitory in Zagreb and passers-by, while going on their daily duties, stop by the police lane and try to see first hand the crater that was created after last night's plane crash from the air on Jarun.
However, the police fenced off a large part of the area in order not to contaminate some of the possible evidence, but also in order to collect absolutely all parts of the aircraft that exploded last night. Every piece of this strange mosaic, as it can be heard, is very important for unraveling the mystery that upset the people of Zagreb last night, reports
Jutarnji list .
The investigation is being carried out in parallel along the Sava embankment on the grassy part, not far from the student dormitory, because one of the passers-by noticed tin objects in that part that do not belong there.
Due to an extensive police investigation in the Jarun zone, a part of Jarun Street from the intersection with Haberleova Street to Selska Street was closed.
Pieces of the aircraft were sent for expertise in order to determine with absolute certainty what exactly it was about.
Some of the students we talked to this morning spent a sleepless night, because they spent half the night outside, and (the) remaining part of the night spent thinking about what it would be like if the
plane fell about 100 meters away where the pavilions are full students. Among them are many Dalmatians who did not close their eyes.
Zeljko Puhovski / Cropix
-
I smelled ammonia all night, like those hair dyes. The air was smelly and irritating. Here, and now I feel the smell I felt last night after something fell from the sky and a red light was seen in the fall. As he left a trail across the sky, the object made a loud sound, as if even accelerating, so people passing by the parking lot literally started to run away. It followed as a sort of detonation, but nothing concrete could be seen in the dark.
And from that smell, which was literally suffocating, a man on a bicycle got sick, so some guys who happened to be nearby came to his aid. He collapsed - a student of the Faculty of Economics, Josip K. , told
Jutarnji list .
Jarun road and parking lot are full of debris and asphalt, and there are also damaged cars
His colleague from the home reveals to us, however, that he overheard a conversation between police officers who were very surprised and worried during the investigation.
- I heard the police talking to each other, because they already knew that the plane had fallen, while the rest of us were amazed, creating conspiracy theories and trying to find out on social media what fell and exploded. They said they were waiting for the military police because the crater was slipping and that it had formed from some broken piece of spacecraft that had a really low trajectory. They said that because of that,
the aircraft was not spotted on the radars because the flight control did not report any flight, let alone a lost plane - recalled another student, noting that it is a blessing that there are no victims because people are always moving in that part.
Zeljko Puhovski / Cropix
www.sfgate.com
Jesus, this is horrible. I can only feel the waves of pain incoming from there. 
