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| Bodies covered by sheets lie near the
wreckage of a Slovak military aircraft which crashed on Thursday with over
40 people on board, in a forest about 3 km from the Hungarian-Slovak
border, January 20,
2006. | PRAGUE, Jan. 20
(Xinhuanet) -- The remains of all 42 people killed in Thursday's military plane
crash have been found and the "black box" registering flight details has been
located, the Slovak Defence Ministry said Friday.
According to reports from Bratislava, capital of
Slovakia, the only survivor of the crash is under treatment and was reported to
be in a stable condition.
The plane, which was carrying Slovak soldiers home
from a NATO mission in Pristina, Kosovo, crashed and burned in a forest about 3
km from the Hungarian-Slovak border, near the town of Telkibanya, killing all
but one of the 43 people on board, including eight crew members.
According to Slovak Air Force commander Juraj
Baranek, the two pilots of the crashed plane were very experienced and they had
not reported any malfunction or emergency during the flight. The officer also
denied the allegation that the plane had been off-course before the crash.
Baranek told reporters that he could not rule out
weather, technical problems, human error, "or a combination of factors" as a
cause of the crash, but the real cause could only be determined after an
analysis of the flight data recorded by the "black box."
The plane was a twin engine An-24 manufactured in
1969. It had gone through five major overhauls and was due to be withdrawn from
service in May. Enditem |