Georgi Bosnakov, the Bulgarian citizen who crashed with his family in his Cessna plane over Macedonia yesterday, had a valid Bulgarian pilot license Bulgarian authorities said.

According to Stanimir Lesev from the Bulgarian air traffic control service, the small plane carrying the Bosnakov family entered into extremely poor weather conditions.

Even the slightest wind can affect small planes. Perhaps this was the reason for the crash, but at the moment we can’t tell for sure. The entire case will be examined on Wednesday, said Lesev.

Macedonian search and rescue teams, supported by helicopters, located the site of the crashed Cessna yesterday, but due to the poor conditions and the mountainous terrain could not recover the bodies of Bosnakov, his wife and their two daughters. Bulgaria offered to send additional helicopters and work is expected to resume today.

The pilot was the owner of a recycling company. He took off from the Ohrid airport and was planning to fly to Sofia, but around 16h he asked for permission to land in Skopje, citing poor weather conditions. Soon after contact with the plane was lost.