1999 F-117A shootdown

1999 F-117A shootdown
Part of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
Canopy, ejection seat, and wing of F-117 with serial number 82-0806 at the Belgrade Aviation Museum in late 2018.
Type	Aircraft shootdown
Location	Near Buđanovci, Serbia, Yugoslavia 44°54′N 19°52′E / 44.900°N 19.867°E / 44.900; 19.867
Target	NATO warplanes
Date	27 March 1999 (1999-03-27) 8:15 p.m.
Executed by	250th Air Defense Missile Brigade, Army of Yugoslavia

On 27 March 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, a Yugoslav Army unit (the 3rd Battalion of the 250th Air Defense Missile Brigade, which was under the leadership of Colonel Zoltán Dani) shot down an F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft of the United States Air Force by firing a S-125 Neva/Pechora surface-to-air missile. It was the first ever shootdown of a stealth technology airplane. The pilot ejected safely and was rescued by U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen conducting search and rescue.^[1][2]

The F-117, which entered service with the U.S. Air Force in 1983, was cutting-edge equipment, and the first operational aircraft to be designed using stealth technology; by comparison, the Yugoslav air defenses were considered relatively obsolete.^[3]