Jat Airways - Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

• The Aeroput MMS-3 (reg. as YU-SAR) became the first passenger aircraft made in Serbia in 1934 under Aeroput's brand name. Also Aeroput ordered two Spartan Cruiser II aircraft and a licence to build further aircraft of the same type. In 1935 one Cruiser II (reg. as YU-SAP) was built under Spartan's licence for Aeroput by Zmaj aircraft company in Zemun.
• In 1953, JAT began organising their flights with the introduction of flight codes. The first code, JU720 was used on the Belgrade-Zagreb-Ljubljana route, while the return flight took the code JU721.
• Towards the end of August 1959, JAT transported its millionth passenger since the founding of the company back in 1927.
• A JAT Boeing 707-321 flew around the world. Commencing on 10 November 1974, the flight took 19 days to complete, flying: Belgrade-Beirut-Bombay-Singapore-Tokyo-Honolulu-Los Angeles-New York-London-Belgrade.
• In 1978, a wide body McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 (which was chosen over the Boeing 747-200) was purchased to succeed the Boeing 707s on the longer-haul routes, although the 707s stayed in service into the 1980s on ad hoc charters and as scheduled-flight replacement aircraft.
• Jat Airways was the first operator of the Boeing 737-300 aircraft in Europe. It arrived at the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport on 8 August 1985 as YU-AND.
• Jat Airways was to become the first operator of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft. However, due to the break-up of Yugoslavia and the imposition of sanctions on Serbia, the aircraft were never delivered.
• In 2004, Jat Airways was named one of the safest airlines in Europe by the IATA. Jat Airways pilots are considered among the best trained pilots in the world.
• Former JAT flight attendant, Vesna Vulović, holds the world's fall record when she fell from 10,160 metres (33,333 ft) with no parachute and survived.
• In 1985, while still known as JAT Yugoslav Airlines, a JAT aircraft picked up Mahmoud Abbas in Rome, Italy as he sought political asylum in Yugoslavia after American authorities requested to arrest him.
• In 2002, the company utilized its fleet for UN missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the Second Congo War.
• The body of former president Slobodan Milošević was transported to Serbia for burial on a Jat Airways regular commercial flight from Amsterdam on March 15, 2006.
• Since 1994, Jat Airways has used the following slogans: In safe hands (U sigurnim rukama), The best fly with Jat (Sve najbolje leti „Jatom“) and More than Flying (Više od letenja)