Opposition groups alarmed by the third air disaster in Macedonia in 16 months Monday demanded the resignation of the government minister in charge of civil aviation.
A Soviet-made jetliner chartered by the Macedonian carrier Avioimpex crashed Saturday near the airport at Ohrid, 70 miles southwest of Skopje. Only one person of the 116 aboard survived.The plane was on a flight from Geneva to Skopje, the Macedonian capital, but was diverted because of a blizzard. Landing conditions were favorable at Ohrid at the time of the crash, said Goran Pavlovski, who is heading the inquiry into the crash.
An increase in flights because of international sanctions imposed on neighboring Yugoslavia has overtaxed Macedonia. The tiny country has no civil aviation authority - licenses and other matters are handled by the Ministry for Urban Planning, Civil Engineering, Communications and Ecology.
"All these carriers are profiting handsomely from the chaos in our civil aviation," said Todor Petrov, leader of a group of seven independent deputies in Macedonia's 120-seat Parliament.