Pilots’ Bodies Taken to Zagreb for Identification

Autopsies and identification will be carried out on the bodies of the four pilots. The parts of the plane will be salvaged in the spring.

GOSPIC, CROATIA – The bodies of four pilots who disappeared off the radar in a Cessna above Croatia’s Mount Velebit were found on Tuesday morning on the north side of the Vagan Summit, spokesman of the County Court in Gospic, Dusan Sporcic, confirmed. 

The same information was confirmed to us last night by Interior Ministry secretary Dubravko Novak, but Lika-Senj police kept denying that the bodies had been found next to the wreck of the plane that was founf by members of special police.

Bodies to be identified in Zagreb

- The bodies were found and will be transferred to Zagreb for identification – Sporcic said, adding that the investigative judge in charge of the case has ordered autopsies be performed on the bodies.

- As investigative judge, I handed authority over to the Lika-Senj police to conduct an on-site investigation, but since these are specific conditions and a specific location on which the plane crashed, the probe will start as soon as the weather permits. The priority is to extract the bodies of the pilots, after which the identification and post-mortem will be carried out. When it is possible, the parts of the plane will be salvaged – judge Matilda Rukavina told Hina.

Parts of the Cessna will be retrieved in the spring? 

But Lika-Senj police spokeswoman, Kristina Maodus, explained to us on Wednesday morning that she caould still give no official statements about the plane that was found, since the police investigation has not even begun yet.

- Conditions are being created for the on-site investigation to begin. A lot of snow has fallen and the area in which the wreckage was found is probably rigged with mines – Maodus explained.

The bodies of the four pilots will be transferred to the Forensics and Crime Institute. If the snow continues falling in these amounts, the remains of the Cessna will be retrieved only in the spring when the weather stabilises.

According to unofficial sources, the special police member who broke his leg when an avalanche toppled onto him while he was searching for the plane is stable and is currently in hospital in Gospic.

Five-day search on Mount Velebit 

Last Thursday at around 4pm, the Cessna dropped off the Croatian flight control radar above Mount Velebit and in the area of the Vagan Summit. The plane carried pilots Gerd Govejsek, 63, Walter Aleksandar, 49, Miljenko Bartolic, 61 and Zvonko Kelek, 68.

Taking part in the five-day search were members of the Mountain Search and Rescue Service, special police, helicopters and the company Geofoto which joined the search for the plane on Monday. The company took aerial photos and gave to the Search Centre coordinates of locations where some objects had been noticed.

The plane was allegedly found in a 150-metre deep crevice at an altitude of 1,200 metres.