Skopje, 12 January 2026 (MIA) - The 18th anniversary of the tragic helicopter crash near Katlanovo’s Blace that claimed the lives of the 11 army peacekeepers while returning from the ALTHEA mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be marked Monday.

Delegations of the Ministry of Defence and Army General Staff, including Defence Minister Vlado Misajlovski and Chief of the Army General Staff Major General Sashko Lafchiski, will lay wreaths of fresh flowers at the memorial in Blace.

Earlier, delegations of the Wing Aviation Unit will lay wreaths at the memorial in front of the Aviation Command in the Strasho Pindzhur barracks in Petrovec.

The MI-17 helicopter of the armed forces was en route from Camp Butmir to Skopje when it crashed due to bad weather on Jan. 12, 2008.

The Macedonian peacekeepers, who returned from a six-month ALTHEA mission in Bosnia, lost contact with the Skopje airport control at about six miles from their destination.

Lieutenant-Colonel Toni Spasovski, Major Goran Ristovski, Captains Brane Spasovski and Igor Gjoreski, Master Sergeants Slavcho Vasilev and Toni Davitkovski, Staff Sergeants Janko Siric, Miki Ivanovski, Aleksandar Taskovski and Aleksandar Vasic, as well as Corporal Zlatko Veljanovski were killed in the crash. 

Photo: MIA archive