Plane carrying 11 tonnes of weapons for Bangladesh | crashes in Greece, says Serbian defense minister | Magazinetodayy
Officials say the Antonov-12 aircraft was carrying 11 tons of weapons, including land-mines.
People within two kilometers of where the plane crashed have been asked to stay indoors.
All eight crew members of this cargo plane died. The plane was en route from Serbia to Jordan when it crashed near the Greek city of Kavala on Saturday night.
'fireball'
The video shows the plane catching fire and becoming a huge fireball as it crashes.
Due to security concerns, drones were sent to the crash site on Sunday morning to monitor the situation.
Greek state television said the army, explosives experts and officials from the Greek Atomic Energy Commission would not be sent there until it was confirmed the area was now safe.
"There is still nothing detected by wind measurements, but the situation in the area where the plane crashed is not stable," Greece's fire brigade Lt. General Marios Apostolidis.
"In other words, there is intense smoke and heat. Another type of white substance has been seen but we still don't know what it is. So we need a special team from the armed forces to tell us what it is and whether we can go there," he said. He said.
What kind of weapons were on the plane?
"The plane was carrying illuminating mortar mines and training mines and all necessary clearances were taken in accordance with international law," he said.
But ISPR, the military's public relations office in Bangladesh, said, "There were no weapons in that shipment."
They said that the cargo plane had mortar shells bought from Serbia for the training of Bangladesh Army and Border Guard Bangladesh.
A director of arms trading firm Valier told the BBC that the cargo plane had land-mines.
'Engine Error'
The pilot requested an emergency landing at Kavala airport after the plane developed engine trouble shortly after takeoff, reports said. But it could not reach the runway.
Local residents spotted the plane at 22:45 local time.
Amelia Saptanova, who saw the plane crash, said she was surprised the plane didn't crash into their home.
"It was full of smoke, there was a noise I can't describe. It flew over the mountain," he said. "Through the mountains it turned and crashed in the field."
"There was such a fire that we were scared. A lot of cars came but they couldn't move forward. Because there were constant explosions," he said.
The flight was scheduled to stop at Jordan, Saudi Arabia and India before reaching Dhaka.
The plane was operated by Meridian, a Ukrainian cargo airline.
However, so far it is believed that this incident has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine.
