It is been 29 years since the deadliest crash in the Macedonian history today, which happened on 22 November 1993 sh0rtly after mid-night in Ohrid. The Yakovlev Yak-42 of Avioimpex crashed during its approach at Ohrid Saint Paul The Apostle Airport after its flight from Geneva. The flight was previously planned to depart from Skopje, but due to the bad weather, it was diverted to depart and return at Ohrid. The plane crashed in the mountain of Orovnik which is only a few kilometers east from Ohrid airport. There were 109 passengers and seven crew members of board. all of which died in the accident.
The story of Avioimpex:
Avioimpex was a Macedonian carrier based at Skopje. The airline was founded in September 1992 and started its operations in the early 1993. It was a very strong company and the best airline in Macedonia. They were operating with a fleet of over 10 aircraft, most of which were Mcdonnell Douglas MD-82 and Tupolev Tu-154. Among these, they were also operating with Mcdonnell Douglas DC-9 and Yakovlev Yak-42. They were flying to lots of destinations in that time, but most to Zurich, Geneva, Dusseldorf and Ljubljana. Among them, Avioimpex had non-stop flights to Istanbul, Zagreb, Basel, Munich, Frankfurt, Hannover, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Oslo, Stockholm, and Vienna. Summer seasonal charters where also operated to the main summer destinations which included: Antalya, Izmir, Bodrum, Hurghada, Malta and Jeddah via Cairo. The airline was often leasing additional airplanes from other airlines, such as Air VIA, Adria Airways and Aeroflot, especially during the summer months. They were also partners with Adria Airways and Turkish Airlines.
However, the airline was forced to cease operations in September 2002 after the Macedonian Government decided to ban all of their operations from Macedonia. The airline was later allowed to fly with fifth freedom from Pristina International Airport but went bankrupt a few months later due to the big fees for such flights.
TESTIMONY OF A FLIGHT ATTENDANT WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO OPERATE ON THAT FLIGHT WITH THE YAKOVLEV YAK-42 WHICH CRASHED IN OHRID:
Please be remined that the following text contains things which may some people may find disturbing!
Now follows the unpleasant experience of the Flight Attendant of Avioimpex who was scheduled to operate that deadly flight. Flight AXX110 which was operated by the Yakovlev Yak-42 aircraft of Avioimpex, took off from Geneva airport at around 10 pm on 21 November, 1993 bound for Ohrid, since the airport of Skopje was about to remain closed for a longer period due to the bad weather conditions. With 109 passengers and 7 crew members on board, the jet crashed in the mountain of Orovnik, only a few kilometers east of the airport. All 116 people onboard died in the crash, making this accident the blackest and largest accident in the Macedonian history.
Now you can read the testimony of the former Flight Attendant of Avioimpex who told us with tears what happened that night. At her request we will not reveal her identity!
- I was under 20 years old... It was a cold and gloomy day. We flew from Skopje to Zurich in the morning of November 21. We had to fly back to Skopje during the afternoon, but the Airport of Skopje was closed due to bad weather, so we were diverted in Ohrid. Soon another plane landed after us... they were coming from a shorter destination... At First, we were told to wait our return to Skopje for a few hours, as the weather conditions were expected to be improved. Several hours passed... we were tired... we were legally supposed to have meal at the airport, so we went for dinner with the crew of our other plane...
- Later, the operational center informed us that one of the crews should go by empty plane to Geneva and return full with passengers back in Ohrid, as the Airport of Skopje was about to remain closed for some longer period. The other crew was supposed to go for a lay over in a hotel.
- They decided that my Crew will fly to Geneva... The operational center told us that we should fly. However, we were already "over duty" because we spent so many hours waiting in Zurich thinking that Skopje Airport would open which was followed by another few hours of waiting at Ohrid.
- We got on the plane, we complained that we must not and that we dont want to go because we are tired and because we could lose our Flying Licenses in Geneva if there was control as we were "over duty". We tried to warm up in the plane... we were very tired. In the very last moment, the senior of our crew, after long arguments, clearly and loudly told the operational center that we were "over duty" and that we had to go to a hotel. They were trying to convince us that in one direction we are empty so can sleep on the flight... but what about the pilots? they have to fly. Specifically for that flight the plane was leased from Russia with Russian pilots with four flight attendants from Macedonia, among which I was the youngest.
- I do not know how and why, because a long time has passed since the accident, but the other Crew agreed to fly to Geneva. Although their Senior Cabin Attendant had a celebration that evening, Saint Archangel Michael, he still agreed to go on that flight. This is one of numerous of examples that this profession requires sacrifice and many concessions from the private life. He was older than me and stable man.
- It got very late, so they had to took us to the hotel in Struga, a city near Ohrid. We immediately went to sleep. At that time we did not have mobile phones to inform our loved ones that we were going to spend the night in a hotel. It was the receptionist who informed me that my father was looking for me on the phone downstairs. I immediately thought it was something important. During the conversation, my father thanked to God that I was alive... he cried for a long time... as I still didn't understand what happened, I thought it was something connected with my mother.... At that moment, the receptionist whispered to me "Your plane has crashed". I was very shaking and only then I understood my father's reaction. I tried to calm him down... He told me that during the evening, while he watching TV, a black screen suddenly appeared with the inscription that an Avioimpex plane had crashed in Ohrid. He thought that I was on that plane. With very big pain and anxiety, he called the Avioimpex operational center to ask if I was operating on that flight. Because it was so "important" for them, they first told him yes...then no... and then they told him that they don't know which crew they definitely sent to fly to Geneva. He saw that there was no help from them, so he started calling the telephone numbers of all the hotels in the area, just so that he can find me.
- After the conversation, I was in tears, very upset and decided to inform my colleagues. I knocked on the door of the room where two colleagues were staying. They opened the door and I quietly and calmly went inside, I was so calm that I was surprised of my composure for my age. I told them the sad news slowly and carefully. There were violent reactions of grief... We went to inform our Senior. I knocked on the door again, entered the room, and told her to sit down. As soon as she saw us she immediately knew that something terrible had happened and that our plane had crashed. We confirmed to her and stayed to talk long into the night.
- Then, in the morning, all dressed in uniforms and tired, we went down to the dining room of the hotel to drink coffee. There were a lot of Struga residents watching the news of the accident on the big TV...They came to us, gave us comments such as "you are heroes", "how can you fly", "you need great courage to fly" and expressed their condolences for the lost lives of our colleagues.
- Soon after, the transport came. We all wanted to go as close as possible to the crash site. We stopped on the street near the mountain, there was a huge smoke and an incredible smell of burnt human flesh...bodies were hanging on the trees... we were shaking.
- The family of one of the flight attendants who died, impatiently was waiting for the announcement if they had found any survivors. They were very brave and with great optimism and tears in their eyes prayed for positive news.
- No one survived, they could not even find their bodies or identify them....Everything was ashes, I do not remember well....When we were at the funeral of the victims of the accident, they said that there were remains of bodies, on one of the stewards, they found his hand with a ring, which helped them identify him....we were actually burying remains of bodies.
- I was most shocked by the meeting with the parents of the our colleagues which died in the accident. Where we went to express their condolences in their houses. I will never forget the moment when the sister of one of the colleagues that died was literally trying to tear my uniform, telling me that she was taking me to death.
- The funeral day came, the procession started from the Chapel. Many people were present. While we were walking to the graves, our superior was trying to find out who would agree to fly in the following days. My young age did not allow me to tell her how tasteless and inhuman it was at that moment from her.....I couldn't recover from the sorrow in my soul...I still remember the terrible and sad moments from the funeral, which engraved scenes of mothers jumping with their dead children in to the graves... there are no words to describe the sadness I felt.....I felt it for a long time and it left a big mark in my life.
- After the crash, Macedonia was a black spot in aviation because this was already the second plane crash in our country in just one year. We lost many passengers who lost confidence in our airlines. They considered Russian planes unsafe and risky. Then, our director made a plan, we started working with Adria Airways and became their partners. We leased their DC-9 and MD82 aircrafts, which were made in America, in order to regain our rating and let the passengers fly with us again.
- I became a Senior Cabin Attendant in 1995 and I worked until the very end of the airline, i.e. until 2002.
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