A mysterious "zap"

David Cenciotti

During my recent visit to Pratica di Mare, I noticed that many of the aircraft that attended the static display of the 87th Anniversary of the Aeronautica Militare, were “zapped” with a small gecko (or something like that) with the number “14°”. Since the aircraft were parked in the 14° Stormo apron my guess is that most of the visitors were zapped by the personnel of the locally-based Wing, but I’m still looking for someone that is able to confirm this hypothesis and to explain to which unit that symbol belongs to.

Aircraft zapped were:
MM7014/RS-01 Tornado IDS
MM55070/61-136 MB.339CD
MMxxxx AB.212
MM81267/72-04 NH-500E
MM55125/70-34 SF-260EA
MM55106/70-11 SF-260EA
MM61937 S.208M
MM55044/32-57 AMX-T

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

Baz (MSF) says:

March 31, 2010 at 12:30 AM

Write to the public relations officer. He is the one who liases between the public and the base. He could find out.
David Cenciotti says:

March 31, 2010 at 8:54 PM

I’ve been informed that the Gecko (in Italian “Geco”) is the new badge of the local GEA (Gruppo Efficienza Aeromobili), responsible for the maintenance and efficiency of all the aircraft that equip the 14° Stormo. “Geco” is also the callsign used by the personnel of the GEA for radio communications with the pilots during ground operations.