Today a Romanian Antonov (seems to be a AN-26) crashed while transporting para's. 10 persons are reported dead and 3 heavilly injured. The plane took of from Tuzla (near the city of Constanta) and she is believed to have crashed shortly after take off.
Ten dead in Romanian military plane crash
From: NewsCore July 06, 2010 3:05AM
A ROMANIAN military aircraft crashed today minutes after taking off from Tuzla airport, in the northeastern part of Bosnia, killing 10 people and leaving three more injured.
Deputy Transport Minister Marin Anton said the AN-2 aircraft, a single-engined biplane of Soviet design, lost altitude soon after take-off, crashed and caught fire.
The plane carried nine paratroopers and four crew members.
The three injured were taken to a local hospital, one of them in a coma, medical sources said.
Witnesses quoted by local media said three paratroopers had apparently managed to jump from the aircraft before it crashed.
The bodies of the 10 dead were found incinerated inside the plane.
The defence ministry has set up an investigation commission.
From the 14 on board, 12 died, 4 from the Air Force - among them Commander Nicolae Jianu, chief of the Air Force School at Boboc. The other 8 (one of which passed away at the hospital) were Navy, from a small elite diver unit (our equivalent of the US SEAL or British SBS). It's a terrible loss; apart from the value of the people involved, as far as numbers go this is the worst loss of life in a Romanian military crash / shootdown since the end of WW2.
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