YEREVAN. – The bodies of the five Armenian crewmembers of the cargo plane, which crashed on November 4 in South Sudan, will be transferred to Armenia one by one.

The relatives of fallen crewmember, second pilot Samvel Hambardzumyan, told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“There are technical problems,” they said. “They are currently sorting the documents to be able to transfer the bodies to Armenia.”

Hambardzumyan’s relatives also confirmed the information that the aircraft belonged to the UAE-registered Ala Avia International LTD., which is owned by Garnik Papikyan, who is also the proprietor of TaronAvia aviation services company.

“We also know that a representative of Garnik Papikyan’s company is also in South Sudan [at present],” they added. 

The said Soviet-era Antonov (AN)-12 transport plane, which belonged to Allied Services Limited, had crashed on November 4 in South Sudan immediately after takeoff, and it damaged buildings and fell into the White Nile.

There were eighteen people aboard the cargo plane, including five Armenian citizen crewmembers: First pilot and aircraft commander Gevorg Tovmasyan, second pilot Samvel Hambardzumyan, engineer Samvel Mkrtchyan, and technicians Armen Antonyan, and Suren Petrosyan. All of them were killed in the crash. 

According to the latest data, the death toll in this tragic accident is forty.