The wreckage of an Antonov cargo plane caught fire at the village of Palaiochori in northern Greece, Sunday, July 17, 2022, after it was reported to have crashed on Saturday near the city of Kavala.
Giannis Papanikos / AP
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Giannis Papanikos / AP
The wreckage of an Antonov cargo plane caught fire at the village of Palaiochori in northern Greece, Sunday, July 17, 2022, after it was reported to have crashed on Saturday near the city of Kavala.
Giannis Papanikos / AP
PALAIOCHORI, Greece — An Antonov cargo plane operated by a Ukrainian airline crashed Saturday near the northern Greek city of Kavala, authorities said. Local residents said they saw a fireball and heard an explosion two hours after the collision.
Greek Civil Aviation authorities said the flight was headed from Serbia to Jordan. The An-12, a Soviet-built turboprop aircraft, is operated by the carrier Meridian.
Greek media said there were eight people on board and that it was carrying 12 tons of “dangerous materials”, mainly explosives. But local officials said they did not have specific information about the cargo and provided the number of people on board varied.
As a precaution because of a strong odor emanating from the crash site, a coordination committee consisting of city, police and fire officials asked residents of two localities near the scene to Most accidents to close the window all night, do not leave the place of the accident. home and wear a mask. Authorities say they do not know if there were dangerous chemicals on board the plane, including those contained in the batteries.
Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority said the pilot managed to alert authorities to a problem in one of the plane’s engines and he was given the choice to land at Thessaloniki or Kavala airports. and he chose Kavala, which was closer, saying he had made an emergency landing.
Communication with the plane almost ceased shortly thereafter. The plane crashed about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the airport.
“We heard explosions until a few minutes ago,” said Filippos Anastassiadis, the mayor of Paggaio. “I’m about 300 meters away from where the accident happened.”
One of the Anastassiadis deputies told state broadcaster ERT that explosions were heard for two hours after the crash.
Locals said they saw a fireball and a cloud of smoke before the crash.
The ERT reports that the military and explosives specialists are on their way to the site, which is located on farmland near two villages that are part of the municipality of Paggaio. But it is not expected that they will start working before dawn. Experts from the Atomic Energy Commission of Greece will join them.
Firefighters have cordoned off the area within a radius of about 400 meters. Fire service officials said the cord-cutting area would be widened by dawn.
