Eight crew members dead in Ukrainian cargo plane crash in Greece
Jul 17, 2022
Kyiv [Ukraine], July 17 : All eight crew members were killed after a Ukrainian cargo plane crashed in northern Greece, Xinhua reported citing an official statement.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko on Sunday confirmed reports that Antonov An-12, a Ukrainian cargo plane crashed overnight in northern Greece, killing all eight crew members on board.
As per the Xinhua report, the crash occurred near the Greek city of Kavala, Serbia's Defence Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said at a news conference on Sunday.
Ukrainian spokesman Nikolenko said a preliminary investigation found a failure in one of the plane's engines, which likely caused the crash.
Taking to his Facebook account, Nikolenko said that the crew members on board the Antonov An-12 plane were Ukrainian nationals.
The aircraft was a commercial flight on route Serbia-Jordan-Bangladesh and was carrying dangerous cargo, he added.
According to Stefanovic, the Ukrainian-operated cargo plane was carrying around 11 tons of weapons, particularly landmines, to Bangladesh when it crashed on Saturday night, Xinhua reported.
Kyiv has set up an operational headquarters at the Consulate of Ukraine in the second largest Greek city of Thessaloniki after the accident, the spokesman said, adding that representatives of the Ukrainian consulate have already arrived at the crash site.
