STATEMENT OF MACEDONIAN INTERIOR MINISTRY ON AIRPLANE ACCIDENT

ACCIDENT $ NEAR OHRID SKOPJE, Nov 21 (Hina) - Macedonian Interior Ministry issued a statement on the last night's airplane accident. According to the statement, the accident happened at about 23:00 hrs Saturday, 20 November 1993. The Ukrainian airplane of "jak-42" type, flying for the air company of "Avioimpeks" of Skopje (the Macedonian capital), crushed down near the village of Orovnik, about two kilometres of the Ohrid airport, and then it caught fire having burnt to ashes. The airplane was flying from Geneva to Skopje, and it should change its direction in order to land on the Ohrid airport instead on the Skopje airport because of the fog in Skopje. According to the latest figures, there were some 104 to 108 passengers in the plane and eight members of the crew. One survivor has been found so far. This is a twenty-year-old man, Slobodan N., a citizen of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He has been evacuated and admitted to the Ohrid hospital, being in critical condition. The medical rescue teams, firemen and the expert teams of the Macedonian Police were sent to the spot of the accident last night. However, the inaccessibility of the ground where the accident happened made it more difficult to undertake immediate rescue action. The investigation into causes of the accident, undertaken by the state expert commission, is underway, according to the statement of the Macedonian Interior Ministry. According to a investigator, Mr. Goce Trajnovski, only a small part of the airplane's tail remained on the spot after the accident, whereas the whole fuselage is completely demolished by fall and fire. The metal of which the plane was manufactured burnt down as well. Most of the dead bodies of passengers also burnt, so that few dead bodies remained on the spot. The airplane fell on the foot of a hill and then it flew some 150 to 200 metres upward experiencing a series of explosions. The list of the passengers of the crushed airplane will be later announced by the air company of "Avioimpeks" 211231 MET nov 93