Ukrainian Transport Aircraft Crashed In Greece

An-12 aircraft of the Ukrainian Meridian airline crashed in Greece. As a result of the plane crash, 8 crew members were killed, they were citizens of Ukraine. Denys Bohdanovych, director general of Meridian, told DW about this.

He did not provide information about the aircraft's cargo and explained that "the details are being clarified."

At the Meridian company, the cause of the disaster is associated with a technical malfunction in the air.

It is noted that on the night of July 17, an An-12 military transport aircraft crashed west of Kavala airport in the Pangeon community in northeastern Greece. According to data from the Flightradar24 aircraft tracking service on July 16, the plane was flying from Constantine the Great Airport near Nis in Serbia to Amman, the capital of Jordan.

The crew managed to warn about a problem with one of the engines before the crash, after which controllers in Greece allowed the aircraft to land at the airport of the city of Thessaloniki or at the airport of Kavala. The pilot chose the latter, but was unable to land. According to eyewitnesses, the aircraft caught fire while in the air, quickly descended, and then fell to the ground, after which there was an explosion.

Firefighters arrived to extinguish the fire. A search and rescue operation is underway.

According to the Greek TV channel ERT, the An-12 was carrying "dangerous cargo".