ATHENS, Jul 18 (NNN-AMNA) – No traces of dangerous substances for public health was found, at the site of the plane crash in northern Greece, according to test results, Fire Service spokesperson, Ioannis Artopoios, told a televised press briefing yesterday.
He added that, all eight crew members on board the Antonov 12 plane were dead, with one body already recovered.
Greek authorities were put on alert, after a Ukrainian cargo airplane crashed near Kavala city, on Saturday evening.
Residents of nearby communities were asked to stay indoors, according to an e-mailed press release of the Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Ministry, as special units of disaster personnel were scanning the area around the crash site for dangerous wreckage.
The plane had departed from Serbia’s Nis to Bangladesh’s Dhaka, with stopovers at Jordan’s Amman, Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and India’s Ahmedabad, carrying 11.5 tonnes of “dangerous goods,” according to an e-mailed press release from Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Serbian authorities announced earlier yesterday that, it was transferring ammunition for training purposes, Greek national broadcaster, ERT reported.
The aircraft’s pilot had requested permission for an emergency landing, notifying Greek authorities of fire in one of the engines, the Civil Aviation Authority said.
The Greek Foreign Ministry expressed deep sorrow over the plane crash and sent condolences to the families of the eight victims.
Special units of disaster personnel, military units specialised in nuclear, biological and chemical defence, pyrotechnics and firefighters, dispatched to the crash site had taken precautions, also due to toxic fumes, as Greece’s General Secretariat of Civil Protection had advised locals to close their windows and doors in the first hours after the crash.
Some of the first emergency responders complained of irritation to the eyes and mouth of firefighters, after coming in contact with an unidentified white substance, and two were transferred to a local hospital with respiratory problems, Fire Service officer, Marios Apostolidis, told ERT.
Eyewitnesses had seen the plane in flames, crashing in a corn field, some 500 metres away from a residential area, and explosions followed.– NNN-AMNA
