Colonel Danijel Borović was the first to fly a Yugoslav People's Army MIG over to the Croatian side in February 1992. In 2022 he was decorated by President Zoran Milanović for the bravery and heroism displayed in the Homeland War.
In February 1992, after his fellow fighter Rudolf Perišin flew across the border, Borović landed a MIG-21 at the Pula airport in the dark after dangerously, skillfully, heroically and riskily separating from a fighter duo that departed from the Željava air base, at the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Borović recalled at today's ceremony that upon the outbreak of the war in 1991 and Perešin's heroic feat, pilots of the Croat roots who were still in the JNA were under additional scrutiny, which made his plan to fly over to Croatia more difficult.
Borović, his wife and their five-year-old son Vanja, who lived in Bihać, had been involved in months-long preparations. Borović and his wife Snježana wrote a book, "Flyover for Croatia" about that period.
While the pilot Borović was flying towards Pula, his wife and son Vanja left Bihać secretly and it took several days before their family reunion in Zagreb.