TREVISO -- Six Italians have died in a plane crash in Macedonia, aboard a flight that had departed from Treviso’s Aviation Club with the destination of Pristina the capital city of Kosovo, authorities confirm Wednesday.

  The small aircraft, a Piper, left from the Northern city’s aeroclub at 14 o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, carrying five passengers and the pilot, Francesco Montagner, the president of the Amateur Sport Association of Treviso’s Aviation Club.

 Along with Montagner was also the vice-president of the club, Dario Bastasin, as well as Luca Dalle Mulle, Angelo Callegari, Ilaria Berti and Visar Degaj, originally from Kosovo but with Italian citizenship. The victims of the crash lived in the provinces of Treviso, Padua and Udine.

 The small aeroplane was meant to have a refuelling stopover at Skopje, Macedonia’s capital, but fell near the village of Kozhle, not far from Veles in central Macedonia.

 The rescue teams are still searching for the Piper’s black box in order to determine the causes of the disaster, but a lot is attributed to the poor weather conditions at the time, with rain, wind and low visibility.  

 The group had planned the trip to Macedonia for business purposes linked to the aviation club itself. Four flights full of the club’s members took off from Treviso, two for Pristina and another to for Skopie. All of them reached their destination, apart from the plane piloted by the president of the association.

 nkd