Park of the Greats

STEVAN POPOV

(1947-2015)

"I was just under 15 years old when I first started flying, and when I first felt the air and the sense of space and heights..”

Stevan Popov

Stevan Steva Popov, an instructor captain at "JAT Airways", was a reserve military pilot, athlete, versatile, and dedicated aviator. He was born on June 12, 1945, in Izbište, near Vršac. At the age of sixteen, he enrolled in a gliding course. Although his initial experiences in aviation were not promising (he crashed the glider on his first flight), he did not give up. With perseverance, determination, and a love for aviation, he managed to reach great heights and distances. In Vršac, he completed the course for a motor pilot, and, as one of the best, he went to the Reserve Officers' School in Zadar in 1965. After his military service, he continued his training in Pančevo, from where the entire squadron was moved to Mostar for the filming of the war spectacle "The Battle of Neretva". He joined "JAT Airways" in 1972 with prior flying experience in the aero club and civil aviation. He began his aviation career on "Caravelle", working as a flight engineer. Later, he trained as a co-pilot on the same aircraft and eventually flew as a co-pilot on the "Boeing B-707". In 1979, he obtained the rank of captain on the "DC-9 aircraft", and in January 1987, he became a captain on the "B-737-300". In April of the same year, he was appointed Deputy Director of "Flight Operations" and also served as acting Director of this "JAT's" Operational Unit.

In the early 1990s, when wars engulfed the former Yugoslavia and, besides demonstrating all his aviation skills, one also had to show military bravery, insight, and, above all, a great humanitarian spirit, Steva Popov proved the magnitude of his noble heart. He participated in the evacuation of civilians, soldiers, and equipment from airports in Pula, Zadar, Banja Luka, Bihać, and Sarajevo. In one day, pilots had sixteen flights between Batajnica and Sarajevo, transporting around 4,000 people. Among those pilots was Steva Popov, who, during the evacuation operation, transported 40,000 people from Sarajevo to Belgrade. In a single day, he returned to Sarajevo five or six times, even in darkness. He landed on the runway, close to the outlines of the surrounding hills, and remembered the people who sat on the floor, packed like sardines, but grateful that they had escaped far from the war.

The two most striking stories from the evacuation of civilians from Sarajevo in 1992 are about children. In one instance, amid the general chaos in the passenger terminal of Sarajevo Airport, Steva Popov saved two children, a brother and a sister, and managed to bring them to Belgrade. No less dramatic was the story of a woman with two children who, in the general crowd at Sarajevo Airport, managed to reach the airplane but only realized upon arrival in Belgrade that one of her children was missing. Steva Popov immediately returned to Sarajevo by plane, found the lost child in the overcrowded passenger terminal, and drove the child back to their mother in Batajnica.

Unfortunately, his loyalty to "JAT Airways" was disregarded in 2004 when he was declared redundant in the company. Steva Popov once commented on this action by "JAT Airways", saying, "I became a person respected by the people. Even today, unknown people thank me for my deed. However, the company 'JAT' did not value my professional and noble act, nor my pilot knowledge. In 2004, I was declared redundant and dismissed. Later, I survived an operation on my right kidney because I did not plan to die. The dismissal was even harder for me than the illness". Sadly, Stevan Popov's death occurred unexpectedly. He committed suicide in 2015 in Ruma by shooting himself in the head in front of his wife, Snežana Jovanović Popov.

He died on the way to the hospital at the age of 68. He had a son, Stevan and daughters, Vesna and Iva from his first marriage with Dušica Popov and a daughter, Jelena with Snežana.