Meridian Flight 3032 (MEM3032) was an Antonov An-12BK which crashed in July 2022 near

Kavala Kavala ( el, Καβάλα, ''Kavála'' ) is a city in northern Greece, the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia and the capital of Kavala regional unit. It is situated on the Bay of Kavala, across from the island of Thasos and on the Egnat ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

while trying to make an emergency landing at

Kavala International Airport Kavala International Airport "Alexander the Great" (Greek: Κρατικός Αερολιμένας Καβάλας «Μέγας Αλέξανδρος», ''Kratikós Aeroliménas Kaválas "Mégas Aléxandros"'') is an airport located in the munic ...

. It was carrying of munitions when it crashed, which continued exploding till the day after, hindering the inspection of the crash site.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved first flew in 1971. It was acquired by Ukrainian cargo carrier Aviation Company Meridian in January 2022 and re-registered as UR-CIC.

Crew and cargo

The eight crew members, all

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

citizens, died in the crash. According to Serbian defence minister

Nebojša Stefanović Nebojša Stefanović ( sr-Cyrl, Небојша Стефановић, ; born 20 November 1976) is a Serbian politician who served as deputy prime minister of Serbia from 2016 to 2022 and as minister of defence from 2020 to 2022. A member of the S ...

, the aircraft's cargo was 11.5-tonnes of Serbian-made weapons and ammunition, including mortar shells.

Incident

The flight originated in Niš, Serbia and was bound for

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

, Bangladesh, with stops in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and India. Eyewitness accounts and video showed that the plane was already on fire before it crashed. Secondary explosions were heard for up to two hours after the crash. Residents within a radius were advised to close windows and stay indoors, while emergency responders, explosives experts and staff from the Greek Atomic Energy Commission were unable to inspect the wreckage due to uncertainty about the nature and state of any remaining cargo and residues. Drones were instead used to examine the wreckage.

Weapons destination

Amid speculation that the weapons were destined for Ukraine, Serbia's defence minister

stated that the weapons shipment was not linked to the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatist forces in Donbas, Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since Feb ...

, and the

Bangladesh Armed Forces The Bangladesh Armed Forces ( bn, বাংলাদেশ সশস্ত্র বাহিনী, Bangladesh Sashastra Bahinī) are the Armed forces, combined military forces of the Bangladesh, People's Republic of Bangladesh. It consists ...

confirmed that they were the intended recipients of the weapons, which they bought from a Polish-owned Bosnian company BA-METALEXPORT. Given Serbia's policy of oscillating between the West and Russia and Serbia's weapons industry and political corruption, political scientist Vuk Vuksanovic continued to question whether the plane was indeed transporting Serbian weapons to Ukraine.

References

External links

Playback flight route on Flight Radar 24

LLC Aircompany Meridian official website
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in Greece 2022 disasters in Greece Accidents and incidents by airline of Europe Accidents and incidents involving the Antonov An-12 Aviation accidents and incidents in 2022 Aviation accidents and incidents in Greece History of Kavala July 2022 events in Europe