Security experts said on Friday the crash of a drone in Croatia's capital after flying over three NATO member states represented a serious security breach and incompetence within the European airspace control system.

Military pilot Ivan Selak said it showed the imperfection of NATO’s aviation control, as well as and someone’s incompetence, not in Croatia but elsewhere, adding that NATO’s command centre did not respond as it should have.

There is a war on NATO’s eastern borders, yet a drone the size of a fighter plane – and approximately with the same speed capacity – flew almost 1,000 kilometres through their airspace, he said.

For now, it is known that the 1,000-km-range drone flew over Romania, Hungary, and Croatia, where it crashed after it ran out of fuel.

NATO will probably say that it watched the drone and considered it to be safe, but this is refuted by the fact that it crashed in the capital of one NATO member and, only by pure luck, did not kill anyone, Selak said.

He ruled out the possibility that the Russians used the drone for espionage, saying they have not been using them for a long time, as they have much better drones.

He guessed the drone lost control or was programmed incorrectly.

‘Poor missile defence all over Europe’

Military analyst Igor Tabak said the crash of a drone was a missile defence issue and that it showed that Europe’s missile shields were not effective, nor are they a threat to Russia. There is one shield in Romania and one being built in Poland, he added.

He said the drone which crashed in Zagreb was most likely a Tu-141 Strizh, which were in use in the 1970s. They are reconnaissance drones with cameras and sensors as well as a parachute system.

Tabak said the remains of one were seen on the Ukraine battlefield a few days ago after it crashed and that it was assumed that the Ukrainians were using them.

‘Airspace control doesn’t work’

Security expert Zeljko Cvrtila said this case showed that radar systems and airspace control in the EU were not working.

The drone should have been located, he said, concluding that it was not noticed, or it would have been shot down.

This means the Russians can send us such a drone and it will reach Zagreb or Aviano without anyone noticing, Cvrtila said, adding this was a serious breach.

He estimated that either Ukraine lost control of the drone or the Russians took control of it.