All eight crew members of a Ukrainian cargo plane that crashed near the Greek city of Kavala on Saturday were killed in the crash, the Serbian defense minister announced on Sunday.
The plane, an Antonov 12 owned by the Ukrainian company Meridian LTD, was carrying about 11 tons of weapons, including mortar mines, to Bangladesh when it crashed on Saturday night, Nebojsa Stefanovic said.
“As for the identity of the crew, we believe they are Ukrainians, but we have no information about it. They are not Serbs,” Stefanovic added at a news conference.
The plane took off from Nis airport (southern Serbia) on Saturday around 8:40 p.m. (6:40 p.m. GMT).
The private Serbian company Valir owned the weapons.
The minister said that it was a transaction agreed with the Ministry of Defense of Bangladesh “respecting international rules.”
“Some media outlets said that the plane was supposedly carrying weapons to Ukraine, which is completely false,” he said.
The plane crashed on Saturday night near the city of Kavala.
Witnesses saw the plane on fire and heard explosions, the Athens news agency reported.
According to the media, the plane requested permission to make an emergency landing at the Greek airport of Kavala, but was unable to land on time.
