Rescue crews will continue through the night their search for the two passengers of a single-engine aircraft that crashed in mountainous area of Kerassia, in the Rodopi prefecture in northern Greece on Friday, the fire brigade said. 
The private plane took off from the Alexandroupoli airport at 12.35 for Bucharest with two Ukrainian nationals as passengers. A second small plane, accompanying the first aircraft, also took off from the airport. Shortly after, the second plane informed Sofia's FIR that it had lost visual contact with the other aircraft. A Greek Super Puma military helicopter took off on a search and rescue mission at about 17.00 and located the wing of the plane in Kerasia. 
The head of the regional fire service operations, Leonidas Karangounis, told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency that a special unit of EMAK and three fire service vehicles are participating in the operation. He said it is raining heavily in the area where the plane is believed to have crashed and the terrain is steep.
 

[File photo]