 He spent the first 20 years in the state-owned Jat Airways, piloting a Boeing 727, and then moved to a private airlines company Prince Aviation.On 15 July 2010, Modli survived a landing accident at the Bol Airport in Croatia, piloting a Cessna Citation II, when the plane ran off the runway and caught fire.All the passengers survived without injuries, but Modli left his job, as he considered that bad landing procedure was his own mistake.