Biggin Hill: A Kosovan boy was treated to a flying trip after arriving in England to have a life-threatening bullet removed from his back.

Home Secretary David Blunkett gave Orpington charity Smile International special permission to fly 10-year-old Berat Musa to England for the life-saving operation.

And Biggin Hill Flying School, at Biggin Hill Airport, treated Berat to a half hour trip in a single engine light aircraft.

Two years ago, a Serb firing squad lined up Berat against a wall with his father and uncles.

Berat, who was left with a one-inch bullet lodged in his back, was the only survivor.

If the bullet moved any closer to his spine, it could have damaged his spinal cord, leaving him paralysed and, if the bullet moved in another direction, it could have punctured his lung.

In January, while visiting the Kosovan village of Ceceli, Smile International representative Reverend Clive Doubleday was asked by the director of a school if he could help Berat.

After months of preparation with the British Embassy and James Paget Hospital, in Great Yarmouth, Suffolk, the charity brought Berat to England for surgery.

Following numerous tests, including X-rays, scans and ultra-sound, the bullet was successfully removed on November 15.

Rev Doubleday said: "Berat was a walking time bomb and it is a miracle how he has survived to date.

"Doctors and nurses at the hospital immediately took to Berat who underwent several days of intensive tests in a very cheerful manner."

On November 21, just six days after the operation, Berat was flown at 2,000 feet in an AA5 Gruman Cheeta over the Kent countryside.

Flying instructor Robert Price, 30, said: "Berat loves aircraft. He had a play with the controls, banking the plane left and right, and lowering and raising the nose.

"He was smiling all the way and couldn't take the smile off his face when he came down."

Berat was reunited with his mother, brothers and sisters in Kosovo on November 23.

November 27, 2001 12:00