mountains near the Slovak-Hungarian border, where a military plane from Kosovo carrying 45 people crashed minutes before it was due to land.
At least 44 people died, police said, but Hungarian state run radio reported that only 18 bodies were discovered so far. "Forty-four people died, this is certain, and one survived," Hungarian police spokesman Laszlo Garamvolgyi told a news conference on Friday, January 20.
The crash occured 250 kilometers (155 miles) north-east from the Hungarian capital Budapest and just 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the Slovak base in Kosice which the troops from the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo were being flown to.
It was one of the most serious military aircraft accidents in years in Hungary, the country where BosNewsLife News Agency has its headquarters. The Slovak An-24 aircraft was on its way from Kosovo to Slovakia when it disappeared from radar screens before crashing between the Hungarian border villages of Hejce and Telkibanya, officials said.
RADAR TROUBLES
"The radars showed that the plane disappeared when it was at a height of about 1,000 meters," explained Erika Bajko, spokeswoman of the Hungarian Civil Air Traffic Authority. "That shows that the plane was preparing to land in Slovakia in the nearby town of Kosice."
The plane, carrying mainly Slovak peacekeepers, was on a regular flight from Kosovo’s capital Pristina, when there were problems reported.
One survivor managed to make a mobile phone call to a relative saying "we are going to crash," rescue workers said. The man, who suffered from serious head wounds, was reportedly taken to a hospital across the border in Kosice, Slovakia.
SECURITY FORCES
Security forces as well as civilian rescue workers and fire brigades from Slovakia and Hungary were involved in search and rescue operations in freezing temperatures, said the mayor of Hejce village, Geza Rohaly.
"We, including civilians, are trying to show the shortest way to reach the crash site," he added. Relatives from the dead and living arrived in Hejce, joined by an army of reporters from both countries. In a statement Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda said he could only "imagine what the wives, the children, the fathers of the soldiers who were serving their country, are feeling."
Hugary’s President Laszlo Solyom and Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyucsany both sent telegrams of condolences to their Slovak counterparts over the crash of the slovak plane in north-eastern Hungary. "Please accept my sincere condolences and deepest sympathy for the airplane disaster that happened near the Hungarian-Slovak border on January 19, whose victims were serving a noble duty in Kosovo in the interest of peace and security in our common Europe," Solyom said in the telegram.
It was not immediately clear what caused the accident. Wreckage was believed to be scattered across the mountains, where news photographers spotted a huge fire.
