Note: This talk, scheduled to be the May presentation in our ‘Exploring Aviation’ series, has been POSTPONED to a future date due to unforeseen circumstances. We’ll post updated information, including the rescheduled date, as soon as it’s available.
N.H. resident, retired F-117 pilot, to speak at Aviation Museum of N.H. about 1999 NATO mission in the Balkans in which he was shot down behind enemy lines, then rescued
LONDONDERRY, N.H.—On March 27, 1999, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Darrell Patrick ‘Dale’ Zelko had a sense of unease before setting out on his mission, which would be without the protective escort of Grumman Prowler electronic jamming planes or anti-radar missiles.
The N.H.-based Zelko later told the BBC, “I’d never felt so strongly—if there was ever a night, a mission for an F-117 to get shot down, it would be this one. I wasn’t surprised when it happened.”
By “it,” Zelko was referring to a S-125 Neva/Pechora surface-to-air missile that hit his F-117 and caused it to crash, making it the first ever stealth aircraft to be shot down in combat.
As the pilot of F-117 callsign ‘Vega 31,’ Zelko ejected safely. He was rescued eight hours later behind enemy lines by a vast Combat Search and Rescue team.
Zelko will recount the Vega 31 incident and provide an overview of the F-117 weapons system on Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m. at the Aviation Museum of N.H., 27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, N.H. The presentation, which is open to the public, is part of the Aviation Museum’s ‘Exploring Aviation’ lecture series.
Back on that night in 1999, Zelko was part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombing of Serbia.
The NATO offensive was a response to a new wave of ethnic cleansing launched by Serbian forces against the Kosovar Albanians on March 20. After falling to earth, Zelko landed in a plowed Serbian field. He hid in an irrigation ditch, but came within a few hundred yards of capture.
Zelko eventually made it home safely stateside, but years later in 2011 had the chance to meet the man on the other side of the surface-to-air missile that hit Vega 31: Lt. Col. (later Colonel) Zoltán Dani of the 3rd Battalion of the 250th Air Defense Missile Brigade of the Army of Yugoslavia.
Dani now operates a bakery, and the onetime adversaries have developed an unlikely friendship. The two became the subject of a documentary titled “The Second Meeting” in 2013.
Dale Zelko has 3,000 hours in fighters/fighter trainers and over 100 combat hours between Operation Desert Storm and Operation Allied Force, plus 1,000 missions over Northwest Oklahoma in the T-37, and a “hardship” tour in the A-10 out of Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.
Hear more about the Vega 31 incident and its aftermath on Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m. at the Aviation Museum of N.H., 27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, N.H. Admission is $10 per person; Aviation Museum members admitted free.
The Aviation Museum, a non-profit 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization based in the 1937 art deco passenger terminal at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, is dedicated to preserving the Granite State’s rich aviation past, and also inspiring today’s students to become the aviation and aerospace pioneers of tomorrow.
The Aviation Museum of N.H. was named “’Best Historic or Cultural Attraction for an All-Ages Family Crowd” in southern New Hampshire in the 2025 HippoPress Reader’s Poll.
For more information, visit www.aviationmuseumofnh.org, call (603) 669-4877, or email ldearborn@nhahs.org. Follow the Aviation Museum on social media at www.facebook.com/nhahs.
