ATHENS, July 17. /TASS/. Three bodies have been recovered from the An-12 crash site in northern Greece and a flight recorder has presumably found, the Sky television channel said on Sunday.
According to the TV channel, bodies of seven out of the eight members of the Ukrainian An-12 plane that crashed on Saturday have been found and three bodies have been recovered from the crash site. The TV channel also said that an object resembling a flight recorder has been found. It posted a photo of an orange device with a sign in French "Flight recorder. Do not open."
The mayor of the affected community of Pangeo, Filippos Anastasiadis said earlier on Sunday that six out of the eight bodies have been found with the help of drones. "The search for the other two continues. The bodies will be taken to Komodini for forensic examination and after that will be handed over to Ukraine’s diplomatic representatives in Greece," the Kathimerini newspaper quoted him as saying.
Commercial flight MEM3032 (Meridian Air Cargo) was en route from Serbia to Jordan when its pilots requested an emergency landing in the northern Greek city of Kavala. The crew reported that one of the plane’s four engines had caught fire. The emergency landing was granted promptly, but the plane began to rapidly lose altitude while approaching the airport.
The aircraft hit a power line and fell about 40 km away from the Kavala airport. According to preliminary information, there were eight crew members on board.
As the plane was not supposed to land in Greece, it was not obliged to report its cargo. According to Greece’s ERT television channel reporting from Belgrade, Serbian Defense Minister Nebojsa Srefanovic said on Sunday that the An-12 was airlifting 11.5 tonnes of munitions to Bangladesh.
The Serbian authorities and Meridian Air Cargo, the plane’s owner, confirmed the death of all the eight crew members who were Ukrainian nationals.