Serbian minister says crashed Ukrainian plane was carrying defence cargo to Bangladesh

Serbian Defence Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic has said that the Ukrainian An-12 aircraft that crashed in Greece was carrying Serbia-made defence cargo to Bangladesh. Stefanovic stressed that the aircraft took off around 20:40 (local time) from Nis and was carrying around "11.5 tons of products of defence industry" for the Defence Ministry of Bangladesh, EuroIntegration reported.

The statement of Nebojsa Stefanovic comes after a cargo plane operated by a Ukrainian airline crashed near Kavala city in northern Greece on Saturday, 16 July. 

According to Greek Civil aviation authorities, the flight was heading from Serbia to Jordan. The aircraft was scheduled to make a stopover in Amman, Riyadh and Ahmedabad and its final destination was Dhaka.

Nebojsa Stefanovic has said that the cargo that was being transferred to Bangladesh was owned by a Serbia-based private company Valir, as per the EuroIntegration report. He said that the plane was carrying "illuminating mortar mines and training (mines)," according to AP. 

Stefanovic noted that the aircraft was flying with the required permits and followed all international rules. Nebojsa Stefanovic said that all the crew members of the An-12 flight had died in the crash. The Ukrainian carrier company Meridian's General Director, Denys Bogdanovych has said that the eight An-12 crew members had lost their lives in the crash. 

Experts find no evidence of dangerous substances at the crash site

Local officials said that all the crew members that died in the crash were Ukrainians, as per the AP report. Before the plane crashed at 11 pm, the pilot had informed air traffic controllers about facing an issue with one engine and they needed to make an emergency landing. Local residents revealed that they saw a fireball and heard explosions for two hours after the plane crashed in Greece. Authorities had advised the residents of two localities who were living in close proximity to the crash site to keep their windows shut throughout the night and not leave their homes. However, authorities on Sunday permitted people to leave their homes and cautioned them about safety in fields as they could have explosives. Experts who were carrying out an investigation at the site of the plane crash revealed that they had found no evidence of dangerous substances. 

Image: AP

Inputs from AP