Greek authorities said that an Antonov cargo plane operated by a Ukrainian airline crashed on Saturday near the northern Greek city of Kavala. Local residents reported seeing a fireball and hearing explosions for two hours after the accident.
Greek civil aviation authorities said the flight was headed from Serbia to Jordan. The An-12, a Soviet-made turboprop aircraft, was powered by the Meridian freighter, AP reports.
Greek media reported that the plane was carrying eight people and that it was carrying 12 tons of “dangerous materials”, mostly explosives. But local officials said they had no specific information about the shipment and had given varying numbers of people on board.
As a precaution due to the pungent smell emanating from the crash site, a coordinating committee made up of municipal officials, police and the fire service told residents of the two areas closest to the crash site to keep their windows closed overnight, and not to leave their homes. homes and wear masks. Authorities say they don’t know if there were dangerous chemicals on board, including those in the batteries.
The Greek Civil Aviation Authority said the pilot was able to alert authorities about a problem with one of the plane’s engines and was given the option of landing at the airports of Thessaloniki or Kavala, and chose Kavala, which was closer, saying he had to make an emergency landing.
Communication with the aircraft ceased almost immediately after that. The plane crashed 40 km west of the airport.
“We were hearing explosions until a few minutes ago,” Philippos Anastasiades, the mayor of Baguio municipality, told the Associated Press a little over an hour after the accident. “I am 300 meters from the site of the collapse.”
One of Anastasiades’s lawmakers told state channel ERT that explosions were heard for two hours after the crash.
Locals reported seeing a fireball and a plume of smoke prior to the accident.
ERT reported that military and explosives experts were on their way to the site, which is located on farmland near two villages that are part of Bagaio municipality. But they are not expected to start work before dawn. They will be joined by experts from the Hellenic Atomic Energy Authority.
The fire service cordoned off the area in a radius of about 400 meters. Fire officials said the cordoned off area will be expanded at dawn.