BOBAN KUSTURIĆ, GREAT PATRIOT AND HUMANITARIAN, WAS BORN 52 YEARS AGO

BANJA LUKA, SEPTEMBER 8 /SRNA/ - Boban Kusturić, former head of the Aviation Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior of Republika Srpska, was born on this day in Banja Luka in 1974.

Kusturić was awarded the Order of Miloš Obilić by the President of Republika Srpska, and the public in Republika Srpska and the region remembers him as a great patriot and humanitarian.

Kusturić graduated from the Military Academy of the Army of Yugoslavia in Belgrade in 1997, specializing in military aviation and air defense, and qualified as an aviation officer and pilot.

He served as a pilot in the Army of Republika Srpska from 1997 to 2005.

After that, he continued working at the Republika Srpska Directorate of Civil Air Navigation as head of the SAR Search and Rescue Helicopter Unit of Republika Srpska.

He served as Director of the Republika Srpska Helicopter Service from 2008 until April 2025, and following its reorganization and the establishment of the Aviation Directorate, he served as head of the Directorate.

He led numerous rescue operations involving people endangered by snowdrifts, floods and fires that required emergency evacuation.

The public also remembers him for almost daily medical transport operations involving seriously ill patients and pregnant women to major clinical centers in Banja Luka, Belgrade and Podgorica, saving many lives in the process.

Kusturić died on May 5 this year at the age of 52.