Airplane Crashes on Croatia’s Mount Velebit

The Cesssna crashed into Mount velebit's highest point. Searc and rescue teams are on their way to the scene.

ZADAR, CROATIA – A Cessna 303 carrying three passengers from Slovakia crashed at the very summit of Mount Velebit. According to unofficial information the plane carried three Croatian pilots.

Immediately after the report of the accident, the search and rescue service was informed to check out this very rough terrain in which there is currently a thick fog and the snow can be up to three metres deep.

According to the first information, the aircraft lifted off from Bratislava with its destination being the Croatian town of Zadar. The last communication with the crew was at 15:40 hours when the plane was above the highest point of Mount Velebit which is located at an altitude of 1,757 metres (Interactive map of the Vagan summit - geonames).

Zadar police spokeswoman Sonja Simurina told us a crisis centre has been established at the police which immediately began an investigation to determine what happened to the plane and passengers.

- The flight control at the Zeminuk airport reported that it had lost communication with the aircraft that had a pilot and two passengers at around 15:40 hours. All I can tell you for now is that the search has begun – Simurina told us.

The head of the Search and Rescue service, Vinko Prizmic, said in the evening that due to poor visibility, the search from the air yielded no results. But members of the mountain Search and Rescue Service from Zadar are searching for the missing plane from the north side.