It happened on the morning of 23 November 1976, when the airline's plane named "Nisos Milos", which was operating the regular route Athens - Larissa - Kozani, crashed in the area of Sarandaporos, killing all 50 passengers. The area was affected by adverse weather conditions, which played a decisive role in the tragic outcome of the flight, as did the inadequate technical equipment at Kozani airport. It was the fifth accident in the history of Greek civil aviation and the fourth of Olympic Aviation, which was already under state control since early 1975.
The fatal plane was a relatively new YS-11, a Japanese-built helicopter, one of the best of its time for short domestic flights, which later joined the Air Force. Piloted by Konstantinos Skiadas, an experienced pilot with previous experience in combat aircraft, it departed at 8:35 in the morning from Elliniko airport for the regular flight OA830, with destination Kozani and stopover in Larissa. Apart from the captain, the co-pilot and the two flight attendants, who were the crew, a total of 46 people (40 Greeks and 6 foreigners) were on board the aircraft.
The beginning of the tragedy was written over Larissa, when the plane failed to land due to dense fog and continued towards Kozani. At 9:46 the airport control tower received the last signal of the plane and gave instructions to the pilot about the weather situation, which did not differ from that of Larissa. The flight was made by sight due to the lack of radio aids at Kozani airport. Since then, the traces of the plane have been lost.
The pilot, in his attempt to find a safe route, descended the plane low, causing it to hit the "Flamburo" peak of the Sarandaporos mountain range at a height of 1,379 metres and crash. The residents of the village of Metaxas heard the explosion and were the first to rush to the scene of the accident, braving the snowstorm that was prevailing in the area. The images of horror they saw would haunt them for a long time. The aircraft had been cut in three and human bodies were burning for miles around. A terrible smell of burning flesh filled the atmosphere for some distance. After some time the rescue teams arrived and soon found that there was no chance of survivors. Armed gendarmes guarded the bodies throughout the night, with temperatures 10 degrees below zero, for fear of wolf and jackal attacks. The next day, the gruesome task of identifying the victims began, which was no easy task.
The victims of the tragic accident were mostly young children: Students on their way to enroll at KATE (today's TEI), soldiers returning to their units, a colleague on his way to get his diploma, a newly married woman, a father returning home to see his newborn child for the first time, and two singers who were about to start a series of performances at the "Aδυναμία" center in Kozani.
The Kozani plane crash shook the society of the time. The press focused its criticism on the inadequate to non-existent technical equipment, not only of Kozani airport, but also of many other Greek regional airports. The commander of the Civil Aviation Authority, Elias Deros, was forced to admit that Kozani airport "is not one of the good ones", while the Minister of Communications, Georgios Vogiatzis, announced that the government (Karamanlis) would immediately allocate 1 billion euros for the construction of the airport.
Source: sansimera.gr
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