Ground floor inside the main exhibition building of the Aeronautical Museum.

Display contains fragments of F-16C wreckage from 1999. During Operation Allied Force, airstrikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, on the night of 2 May, an F-16C aircraft (88-550) from 555^th Squadron, Aviano Airbase, Italy, was shot down while returning from a strike against targets in Serbia. Yugoslav 3rd Battalion, 250th Air Defense Missile Brigade in the village of Buanovci near Ruma engaged the aircraft with several missiles from the S-125 NEVA missile system (NATO designation - SA-3 GOA). Hours after the crash, an Air Force Special Operations (AFSOC) Special Tactics team onboard an MH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter from the 55th Special Operations Squadron, Joint Task Force

NOBLE ANVIL recovered the pilot, then-Lt Col David Lee (Fingers) Goldfein (Squadron Commander, callsign HAMMER 34) and returned him to Aviano AB. Several weeks earlier, the same Yugoslav unit also shot down an F-117A aircraft piloted by Lt Col Darrell Patrick (Dale) Zelko from the 49th Fighter Wing, who managed to eject and was also rescued by the same combat search and rescue task force. 

During 2016-2020, General David L. Goldfein served as the 21st Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force.

Fragments include F-16C tailfin (vertical stabilizer) and canopy on open display, as well as additional items in a glass case:

- M61A1 Vulcan 20mm cannon

- F-16C ejection seat model MDD ACES II

- One side of the F16C rear landing gear

Source of information: www.muzejvazduhoplovstva.mod.gov.rs, www.dafhistory.af.mil, www.airforcetimes.com, https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/108013/david-l-goldfein

Source of photos: googlemap, www.airforcetimes.com