On the morning of September 3, on the slopes of Mount Zec, near the town of Fojnica, the commemoration ceremony for the Fallen of the G-222 "Lyra 34" of the 46th Air Force of the Air Force shot down by two surface-to-air missiles took place. September 3, 1992, in the skies of the former Yugoslavia, while transporting humanitarian aid for the civilian population during the siege of Sarajevo.
The event paid tribute to the four crew members: Marco Betti, Marco Rigliaco, Giuseppe Buttaglieri and Giuliano Velardi, who lost their lives in the tragic event and were decorated with a Gold Medal for Military Valor.
The ceremony was presided over by the Ambassador of Italy in Sarajevo, Nicola Minasi, in the presence of the commander of EUFOR ALTHEA, General Reinhard Trischak, the deputy commander of NATO HQ Sarajevo, Colonel Henriksen, Italian military personnel working at the Mission Command EUFOR ALTHEA and at the NATO HQ in Sarajevo, the apostolic nuncio Archbishop Luigi Pezzuto.
In his speech, Ambassador Minasi expressed the hope that the sacrifice of the Italian military, as well as of all the other countries that offered help and assistance to the country in those tragic years, be the example on which to found a better future for Bosnia. -Herzegovina, also recalling how the sacrifice of the four soldiers testifies to the commitment of the Italian Armed Forces, in collaboration with the local authorities, in favor of maintaining peace in Bosnia.
The inscription, engraved on the plaque placed in their memory near the impact site, reads: "Fallen so that the others may live" and, also transcribed in Bosnian-Croatian and Serbian language: "... The 46th Air Brigade, in furrow of a heroic tradition of war and peace, consecrated by the sacrifice of crews who fell in the fulfillment of duty, he wrote pages of history that constitute a glorious heritage of military virtues that have given prestige and prestige to the Armed Forces and the Air Force and to Italy ".
The ceremony concluded with the reading of the Aviator's Prayer.
