Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991 TAG: 9102060567
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: AHILIO, GREECE LENGTH: Medium
The C-130 Hercules was lost from radar screens in bad weather Tuesday somewhere near this tiny fishing village 150 miles northeast of Athens.
"The terrain is not wild [so] we would have found it if it was here," Ioannis Lepidis, a deputy police chief from the nearby city of Lamia, told The Associated Press.
The air force said the plane was on a routine 190-mile flight from Athens to the Nea Ankhialos air base near Volos in central Greece when it disappeared.
It was carrying five crewmen, six officers, six non-commissioned officers and 39 conscripts who were members of Nea Ankhialos' honor guard, officials said. Early today, the Ministry of National Defense announced seven more airmen who were not on the boarding list were aboard the aircraft.
Defense Minister Ioannis Varvitsiotis also told reporters that aircraft had picked up a sound from what could be a personal survival beacon.
Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis said Tuesday that the government "isn't ruling anything out" in investigating the cause of the crash, including the possibility of a terrorist attack.
Rescue crews came to Ahilio, a village of about 100 residents on the Pagasitikos Gulf on the eastern coast of Greece, after reports that an explosion was heard in nearby Cape Stavros bay.
Marine officers on the scene said there were confusing reports about where the plane may have crashed.
Air force, navy and army rescue crews searched an area from the 5,663-foot Mount Othris to the gulf, but eased off overnight because of heavy snow in the mountains, freezing temperatures and darkness.
Military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the pilot's last report was that he had locked onto Nea Ankhialos' landing beacon and was making a low approach to the air base because of bad weather.
by CNB