Rescue teams of the Croatian national emergency service, helicopters of the Croatian Interior and Defence Ministries and local firefighters were engaged in a search which was launched after the Hungarian ultra-light plane went missing on Friday evening while flying from Hungary towards the Croatian island of Brac. On Saturday, border services of Bosnia-Herzegovina also joined in the search, as the area of the Plitvice Lakes, where the plane was believed to have fallen, is near the Croatian-Bosnian frontier,
A representative of the Croatian emergency service told Hina today that it was impossible to spot the crashed plane from helicopters which were flying over the Plitvice Lakes area searching for it, as the plane fell down in a thick forest, and in the fire which erupted after the explosion when the plane hit the ground, only lower parts of branches on nearby trees were burnt with the tops of the trees remaining intact.
Most of rescue teams headed towards Medvedjak Ostri Hill after three hunters gave separate statements claiming that they had heard a thump from the direction of that hill on Friday evening.
The plane which Croatian rescue workers found today, was in a group of eight Hungarian ultra-light planes carrying Hungarian business people and their families for a weekend to the Croatian island of Brac. All of them departed from Hungary on Friday evening, but dense fog and unfavourable weather conditions obstructed their safe flights across central Croatia. One of the planes hit the Velika Lisina hill overlooking the village of Poljanak in Rakovica municipality, in the area of the Plitvice Lakes national park, killing two persons on board. This one was found a few hours after the crash.
Five planes made emergency landings at the Zemunik Airport near the coastal city of Zadar, and another one had to land at Drnis, a town in the Split hinterland.
Croatian authorities are conducting investigations in the two accidents.