Eight crew members have died after a Ukrainian cargo plane carrying munitions from Serbia to Bangladesh crashed in northern Greece late on Saturday.
Experts investigated the crash on Sunday and found no evidence of dangerous substances, but said there is a lot of ordnance that the plane was carrying spread around the crash site.
The Antonov An-12 cargo plane from Serbia was being flown by a Ukrainian aviation crew before it smashed into fields between two Greek villages late on Saturday.
Minutes before, the pilot had reported engine trouble and had requested an emergency landing. He was directed to Kavala International Airport but never made it there.
Drone images from the scene showed smouldering debris from the Antonov An-12 aircraft strewn across fields.
Serbian Defence Minister, Nebojsa Stefanovic, told a news conference on Sunday the plane had been carrying 11.5 tonnes of products, including mortar and training shells, made by its defence industry.
The Ukrainian consul in Thessaloniki, who arrived at the crash site, told local officials that the eight crew members who were killed were all Ukrainian.
The Greek army’s Special Joint Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence Unit cleared two paths on Sunday for Fire Service forensics experts to move in before leaving.
By sunset, that second team had retrieved all the bodies, the commander of the army’s Landmine Field Clearing Battalion told reporters.
In a post on Twitter on Sunday, the Greek Foreign Ministry expressed its deep sorrow over the plane crash.
“Profoundly saddened by the news of the cargo plane crash in Northern Greece, near Kavala. We express our sincere condolences to the families of the 8 Ukrainian crew members who tragically lost their lives in the plane crash,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Source: AP News.
