Home>News Center>World
         
 

Slovak military plane crash kills 42
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-20 14:08

A Slovak military plane carrying troops back from Kosovo crashed into a mountainside in northeastern Hungary, killing at least 42 people, officials said Friday.

Only one person survived after the AN-24 aircraft went down Thursday near the Slovak border, said National Police spokesman Laszlo Garamvolgyi. The survivor was taken to a hospital in the Slovak city of Kosice but there was no immediate word on his condition.

Tibor Dobson, spokesman for Hungary's national catastrophe rescue service, said there were 43 people on board the plane and that all but one died, based on a passenger list provided by the Slovak Embassy in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

That included 35 passengers who all had some kind of military rank and eight crew members, Dobson said.

Partial map of Europe highlighting Slovakia and Hungary.
Partial map of Europe highlighting Slovakia and Hungary. [AFP]
But Garamvolgyi said there were 45 people on board and that 44 were killed. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained.

A NATO officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on to the media, said in Kosovo that the plane was carrying Slovak soldiers back home after serving in the NATO-led peacekeeping force. Officials say Slovak troops help patrol the boundary between Kosovo and Serbia.

According to a statement from the local police, the plane cut off the tops of trees along a 400-yard stretch before slamming into the mountainside. Air traffic controllers lost sight of the aircraft just after 7:30 p.m. and authorities began receiving reports of a crash from eyewitnesses shortly thereafter.

"An initial inspection revealed that the airplane ... was not carrying weapons, ammunition or explosives," the Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen County police said in a statement.

Gergely Abraham, a spokesman for the Economic and Transport Ministry said the area where the crash occurred about 155 miles northeast of Budapest was not heavily populated, but did not provide other details.

Hungarian rescuers and fire crews were at the crash site, Hungarian Interior Ministry spokesman Sandor Orodan said.

The Czech news agency CTK reported Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda had called a late-night meeting with Cabinet ministers.

The agency also said the Slovak army sent a helicopter to the crash site, but that it was unable to land because of bad weather.



Canadian to vote next week
New Horizons spacecraft to explore Pluto
Earthquake disaster drill in Tokyo
 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Bin Laden threatens attacks, offers truce

 

   
 

Wen: Rural area development key for stability

 

   
 

Nationwide crime rate shows drop

 

   
 

China, US to discuss nuke issues

 

   
 

Taiwan appoints 5th 'premier' since 2000

 

   
 

Unmanned spacecraft hurtles toward Pluto

 

   
  Bin Laden threatens attacks, offers truce
   
  US, South Korea prod North to return to nuclear talks
   
  At least 16 die in Slovak plane crash
   
  Unmanned spacecraft hurtles toward Pluto
   
  Chirac threatens nuke attacks on 'terrorist' states
   
  Tel Aviv bombing comes a week before vote
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Manufacturers, Exporters, Wholesalers - Global trade starts here.
Advertisement