{"id":144268,"date":"2021-09-15T11:52:28","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T03:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=144268"},"modified":"2021-09-15T11:52:30","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T03:52:30","slug":"greece-probes-crash-that-killed-witness-in-netanyahu-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=144268","title":{"rendered":"Greece probes crash that killed witness in Netanyahu trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/articles\/stories\/06\/06\/81\/76\/320x180_cmsv2_36824ef5-4ef9-52e2-bc15-fb31a606b361-6068176.jpg\" alt=\"A coast guard vessel arrives with two bodies at Pythagorio port, on the eastern Aegean island of Samos.\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" title=\"A coast guard vessel arrives with two bodies at Pythagorio port, on the eastern Aegean island of Samos.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>A coast guard vessel arrives with two bodies at Pythagorio port, on the eastern Aegean island of Samos<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"article-123\">ATHENS, Sept 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Greek authorities are investigating the crash of a private plane from Israel that killed a prosecution witness in Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s corruption trial.<br><br>Haim Geron, a former senior official at Israel\u2019s ministry of communications, and his wife Esther were killed when the single-engine Cessna 182 plane crashed late on Monday off the island of Samos.<br><br>Geron was one of more than 300 witnesses prosecutors listed for Netanyahu\u2019s trial on corruption charges.<br><br>The former Israeli prime minister is on trial for allegedly accepting expensive gifts from wealthy associates, allegations he denies.<br><br>Geron had been expected to testify on allegations that Netanyahu negotiated with a telecommunications firm to secure positive coverage in exchange for policies benefitting the company.<br><br>Greece\u2019s Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Board are investigating the causes of the crash, officials said Tuesday.<br><br>The single-engine took off from Haifa and crashed near Samos Airport.<br><br>\u201cShortly before landing, communication with the control tower on Samos was lost and the Civil Aviation Authority informed the search and rescue center about the loss of communication,\u201d the authority said in a statement.<br><br>The bodies of the two Israeli occupants were recovered by the Coast Guard several hours later with the help of divers.<br><br>Netanyahu, now the opposition leader in Israel\u2019s parliament, has denied all accusations and mocked the size of the witness list.<br><br>Kondylis, head of the Greek air accident investigation and aviation safety board, on Tuesday said a team of specialists would fly to Samos on Wednesday to inspect the wreckage.<br><br>\u201cA fisherman said there was a large explosion, followed by a smaller one,\u201d Kondylis said.<br><br>\u201cThe wreckage will show if that\u2019s the case,\u201d Kondylis said, adding that the wreckage was approximately 33 meters underwater and two kilometers south of the airport.<br><br>He added that he was \u201chopeful\u201d there would be more clarity on the causes of the crash over the next two weeks. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A coast guard vessel arrives with two bodies at Pythagorio port, on the eastern Aegean island of Samos ATHENS, Sept 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Greek authorities are investigating the crash of a private plane from Israel that killed a prosecution witness in Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s corruption trial. Haim Geron, a former senior official at Israel\u2019s ministry of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":144272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144268"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/144272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}