Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the Ukrainian An-12 Antonov aircraft that crashed in Greece was transporting training and lighting mines from Serbia to Bangladesh through Jordan, TASS reports .
“These were training and lighting mines, the cargo was heading to Bangladesh to the final buyer, the government of Bangladesh confirmed this. This is our job, we make money on it, 35,000 of our citizens work in this industry.”
According to him, the Ukrainian company took over the duties of the carrier because it has four-engine transport aircraft. Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, head of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic Nebojsa Stefanovich claimed that the An-12 was carrying 11.5 tons of weapons for Bangladesh.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko commented on the crash on his Facebook page on Sunday, noting that the plane was carrying "dangerous cargo." There was no data on "training mines" in his message. According to him, the preliminary cause of the accident is the failure of one of the engines.
“At night, a Ukrainian An-12 transport plane crashed in northern Greece, which was transporting dangerous goods on the Serbia-Jordan-Bangladesh route. The crew consisted of eight citizens of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian plane An-12 "Antonov" crashed on the night of July 17 in Greece near the city of Kavala. CNN Greece sources close to the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority reported that the plane was heading from Serbia to Jordan and was carrying 12 tons of "dangerous cargo". There were 8 people on board. The ERT1 TV channel reported that the bodies of all eight dead members of the Ukrainian crew were removed from the wreckage of the aircraft and sent to a hospital in the city of Komotini. A forensic medical examination will take place there, and then the bodies will be handed over to the diplomatic representatives of Ukraine in Greece.