Heads will roll in Romania after a recent plane crash, where survivors were found seven hours after the impact because of errors locating the crash site. The delay most likely caused the death of two of the survivors of the crash.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta (in picture) dismissed state secretary Constantin Chiper, who was in charge of the rescue mission, and who should have coordinated better the teams of rescuers on site.

The PM also decided to replace the head of Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration (ROMATSA), and will ask to replace the head of the Special Telecommunication Service (STS) in the next meeting of Romania's Supreme defense Council (CSAT). STS in is charge of the emergency number 112, whose software should immediately identify the location of the caller.

In the case of the medical plane crash which took place on Monday afternoon (January 20) in Romania's Apuseni mountains, the STS gave two different, incorrect locations for the crash, leaving rescuers a wide area to search. This significant delayed finding the survivors, who were luckily found by a villager.

“The preliminary conclusions of the report I have asked about how state institutions worked after the plane crash are the following: there were unacceptable deficiencies in the search operation, which I also find to cause indignation. These need clear actions to improve the intervention system. The Domestic Affairs Minister, ROMATSA and STS worked unacceptably slow,” said the PM in a press conference. He said the rescue mission can be seen as a failure, but added he was happy that in the end five lives were saved.

Ponta will propose for the five survivors to be decorated, as well as those who found them.

Two people died in the plane crash on Monday, after the small Britten Norman 2 plane entered a fog area, and then lost engines. The pilot Adrian Iovan died of internal bleeding and cold at some time after the crash landing. A 23-year old medical student who was accompanying the team of doctors on their way to Oradea to harvest organs for a transplant also died while waiting for the rescuers. The other five survivors, four doctors and the co-pilot, are out of any danger.

One of them doctor Radu Zamfir, who was the least injured, checked himself out of the Cluj hospital and flew back to Bucharest the next day. During a press conference, he said he gave the emergency service his exact GPS location provided by a smartphone early on after the crash.

editor@romania-insider.com