crashed in northeastern Hungary Thursday, January 19, killing 42 people, police officials said.
Initially 44 people were believed to have died, but that number was later lowered to 42. Most of the people on board the AN-24 Slovak military aircraft were Slovak peacekeepers returning from Kosovo
The black box flight recorder will be examined by Slovak military authorities with the co-operation of Hungarian aviation authorities and a representative of the Hungarian police, Hungarian news agency MTI quoted police spokesman Laszlo Garamvolgyi as saying. It was the worst military plane crash in years in Hungary, where BosNewsLife News Agency has its headquarters.
The rescue operation on the crash site at Borso Hill near the village of Hejce, some five kilometers (3 miles) from the Slovak-Hungarian border, was expected to be completed later on Saturday, January 21. Around 100 police were reportedly involved in collecting about 1,000 pieces of the aircraft scattered in the dense forest, "but their work has been hindered by heavy snow that fell overnight and the extreme cold," Garamvolgyi added.
TRANSPORTING SOLDIERS
The transport plane was transporting the soldiers of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission home from Kosovo’s capital Pristina, when it veered from its flight path after it was taken over by Slovak air controllers, reports said. It into a mountainside between Hejce and Telkibanya villages soon after 1930 PM local time on Thursday, January 18.
Fire services reportedly managed to lift the bodies of all 42 victims of the crash on Friday, January 20. They were transported to the town of Kosice in Slovakia, where the sole survivor is being treated in a hospital. Doctors told reporters the man had "miraculously survived."
Hungarian television reported earlier he managed to make a mobile phone call saying "we are crashing."
MOURNING DAY
On Friday, January 20, the Slovak Government declared a National Day of Mourning. "The Slovak Republic will pay tribute to the victims of this tragedy by flying state flags at half-mast. We will also ask local government bodies to lower their flags in accordance with this state of mourning," Premier Mikulas Dzurinda told journalists.
43 people were on board the aircraft, which was heading to Kosice from Pristina in Kosovo. Three women were among the victims of the crash, the Slovak Defense Ministry press department told Slovak media.
The aircraft was carrying 28 soldiers returning home as part of a troop rotation, seven rotation-support staff and eight crew members, the Slovak news agency TASR-SLOVAKIA reported. It is still unclear what caused the crash.
