A Cargo PLANE was engulfed in flames before it exploded in a massive blaze when it crashed near Greece’s northern city of Kavala.
The fire brigade and state TV reported late Saturday night that a cargo jet had gone down in the area of Kavala, which is located in northern Greece.
According to state TV Ert, the aircraft in question was an Antonov An-12 registered to a Ukrainian firm and flying from Serbia to Bangladesh at the time of the crash. A malfunction with the engine prompted the pilot to request an immediate landing, however the signal carrying this request was lost.
Meridian, a cargo company in Kiev, told Reuters, “Of course, they didn’t make it through this.”
The pilot was able to notify the authorities of a problem with one of the aircraft’s engines, and as a result, he was given the option of landing in either the Thessaloniki or Kavala airports. He decided to land at Kavala since it was more convenient, but the plane went down around 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the west of the airport, according to the Greek Civil Aviation authorities.
The airplane was shown in the video footage published to ertnews.gr engulfed in flames while rapidly falling before what appeared to be an explosion occurred upon impact with the earth. It was not immediately known how many passengers were on board the aircraft, and the fire service was unable to determine the type of aircraft that was involved.
Following the collision, a fire broke out, which required a total of 15 firefighters and seven fire engines to put out. The company confirmed in a statement that they had dispatched these resources. Additional people who could help were on their way.
It wasn’t clear what the plane was carrying, but a group trained to deal with disasters was also looking into the scene.
An official from the fire brigade declared, “We are considering the cargo as dangerous material.”
