Specialists are set to analyze the location of a lethal airplane crash in northern Greece Sunday to find out whether or not any harmful chemical substances or explosive cargo stays.
The Antonov An-12 cargo airplane smashed into fields between two villages late Saturday. Native residents reported seeing a fireball and listening to explosions for 2 hours after the crash. A plume of white smoke was nonetheless rising from the entrance finish of the airplane on Sunday morning.
Serbian Defence Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic instructed a information convention Sunday that each one eight crew members have been killed. He mentioned the airplane was carrying 11.5 tons of Serbian-made mortar ammunition to Bangladesh, which was the customer. It had taken off from the Serbian metropolis of Nis and had been resulting from make a stopover in Amman, Jordan.
The airplane was operated by Ukrainian cargo service Meridian, and the Ukrainian consul in Thessaloniki, who has arrived on the crash web site, instructed native officers that the crew have been all Ukrainian.
“These have been illuminating mortar mines and coaching [mines]…. This flight had all essential permissions in accordance with worldwide rules,” Stefanovic mentioned.
The airplane crashed shortly earlier than 11 p.m., about 40 kilometres west of Kavala Worldwide Airport. Minutes earlier than, the pilot of the airplane had instructed air-traffic controllers that there was an issue with one in every of his engines and that he needed to make an emergency touchdown. He was directed to Kavala airport however by no means made it there.
The airplane is a Soviet-era four-engine turboprop cargo service.
Residents instructed to not depart properties
Drone footage reveals that small fragments are all that’s left from the airplane. Firefighters who rushed to the scene within the evening have been prevented from reaching the crash web site by smoke and an intense scent that they feared is likely to be poisonous.
Close by residents have been instructed to maintain their home windows shut all evening, to not depart their properties and to put on masks. Authorities mentioned they didn’t know if there have been harmful chemical substances on the airplane, together with these contained in batteries.
A particular military unit that appears for nuclear, organic and chemical substances will comb the location.
The fireplace service has cordoned off the realm at a radius of about 400 metres.
The mayor of the municipality of Paggaio, to which the 2 villages near the crash belong, has banned automobile motion on close by roads.