DUBROVNIK, April 4 (Hina) - During Wednesday night, rescue teams have found the bodies of all 32 passengers who were aboard the U.S. airplane Boeing 737, which also carried the United States Trade Minister, Ronald Brown, with his
associates. The plane crashed Wednesday afternoon in Velji Do near Dubrovnik, Croatian Interior Minister, Ivan Jarnjak said Thursday in Dubrovnik.
DUBROVNIK, April 4 (Hina) - During Wednesday night, rescue teams
have found the bodies of all 32 passengers who were aboard the U.S.
airplane Boeing 737, which also carried the United States Trade
Minister, Ronald Brown, with his associates. The plane crashed
Wednesday afternoon in Velji Do near Dubrovnik, Croatian Interior
Minister, Ivan Jarnjak said Thursday in Dubrovnik. #L#
"This is a really horrific incident. Even the site of the
accident looks horrific. What has been most important for us during
the night was to search the whole terrain and establish whether
someone was still alive, but was lying there hurt. The teams worked
all night. The last victim was found," Jarnjak said, adding that
there was no possibility of someone surviving the accident.
Jarnjak recalled the difficult weather conditions in the
terrain caused by dense fog and rain.
"We have not identified all victims yet, but it is presumed
that they were citizens of the United States, among whom there was
a Croatian photographer," Jarnjak said, adding that U.S. Army
troops were already at the site and the Croatian police and army
had offered their assistance.
One woman who had survived the crash died on Wednesday night
on way to the Dubrovnik hospital, a doctor at the hospital, Ankica
Dzono-Boban told Hina.
The woman was pronounced dead in an ambulance vehicle while on
her way to hospital in Dubrovnik.
The possibility that anyone had shot at the airplane with any
kind of weapon, and shot down the U.S. Trade Minister, Ronald
Brown, was impossible, the Chief of the civil aviation inspection,
Miljenko Radic said at Wednesday night's "Slikom na Sliku"
programme on the Croatian Television.
Radic said that "the flight which was routinely announced and
observed, was conducted routinely. It is confirmed that the
Dubrovnik airport is completely correct technically and both
navigation devices for landings were completely correct".
"The procedure in cases when the pilot has to decide what to
do and he cannot see the airstrip, he has to turn the plane to the
right and proceed towards the navigation device. According to the
findings and the site of the crash, the plane turned left and
crashed 2.7 km north east from Cavtat," Radic said.
Croatian Premier Zlatko Matesa an the U.S Ambassador to
Croatia, Peter Galbraith, who visited the site of the accident on
Wednesday night, travelled again to the site on Thursday. They are
later expected to hold a news conference in Dubrovnik.
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041053 MET apr 96