Garnik Papikyan, who is the proprietor of TaronAvia aviation services company, neither denied nor confirmed the information that the cargo plane, which had crashed recently in South Sudan, belonged to him.

To Armenian News-NEWS.am’s remarks that there are reports that this aircraft belonged to his company, Papikyan replied in anger: “Who gave you my phone number? Whoever gave [it], ask him. Goodbye.”

According to our reliable sources, however, this plane belonged to Garnik Papikyan’s Ala International LTD, which is registered in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Papikyan could not be contacted since the crash.

A Soviet-era Antonov (AN)-12 transport plane had crashed on November 4 in South Sudan immediately after takeoff, as 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.

The death toll in this tragic accident is forty.

Bodies of the Armenian crewmembers were transferred to Armenia.