Two dead in private aircraft crash off Samos
Two people were killed on Monday when a light aircraft crashed into the sea close to the island of Samos, authorities said.
The small private aircraft, that was flying from Israel to the Greek island with two persons on board, crashed close to the island’s airport.
“We recovered two bodies from the spot,” a coastguard official told Reuters without providing further details.
“The aircraft crashed about a mile south from the airport,” a second official said.
It is understood that the two bodies are of the only passengers on the aircraft, a single-engine Cessna 172.
Public broadcaster ERT reported that the bodies were of a man and a woman.
The plane is understood to have encountered a problem on the approach to the island’s airport.
According to Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority sources, a search and rescue operation was launched, involving a fishing boat, a coastguard vessel and a Frontex patrol boat.
[ANA-MPA/Kathimerini/Reuters]
