Greece will lodge a protest with Serbia because it was not informed in time about the weapons in the Ukrainian plane that crashed on Saturday evening near the city of Kavala in the north of the country, diplomatic sources announced on Monday.
An Antonov An-12 carrying 11,5 tons of Serbian-made weapons and military equipment, including mortars and training grenades, went down in flames, exploding on impact in cornfields on Saturday night around 20 p.m. Eight Ukrainian crew members were killed.
Earlier, the pilot reported engine trouble and was cleared to make an emergency landing at Kavala, but the plane's signal was lost shortly after the call at 19.42:XNUMX.
Pictures from the scene show debris from the plane, operated by Ukrainian cargo airline Meridian, strewn across fields.
Serbian Defense Minister Nebojša Stefanović said on Sunday morning that the weapons the plane was carrying were produced by the Serbian defense industry. It took off on Saturday at 18.40:XNUMX from Niš, Serbia, and the customer was the Ministry of Defense of Bangladesh.
"The Greek ambassador in Belgrade will soon issue a demarche that Serbia should have previously informed Greece about the nature of the plane's cargo," said a diplomatic source.
Greek authorities cordoned off the site on Saturday and later banned movement in the area, advising nearby residents to keep their doors and windows closed while firefighters with a special disaster response unit investigated the area.
A fire brigade official said on Sunday morning that white dust was floating in the air. Greek authorities announced in the evening that tests showed that the substances released into the air after the accident were not toxic or dangerous to public health.
Greek opposition parties accused the conservative government of failing to provide information about the cargo and called on it to investigate the incident further.
The prosecutor launched an investigation into the accident.
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