The plane was flying from Serbia to Jordan, there were no passengers on board, the ERT television channel said on Saturday night, adding that there were eight crew members on the plane.
Later in the day, Serbian Defense Ministry confirmed these figures, adding that all crew members died in the crash. The destination point of the flight, however, was Bangladesh, the ministry noted.
"The plane that crashed at night in Greece, an An-12, was carrying 11.5 tons of our defense industry products for Bangladesh. All eight crew members, unfortunately, died," Serbian Defense Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said on Sunday morning.
According to the minister, the plane took off from the Serbian city of Nis at 08:40 p.m. (18:40 GMT) on Saturday and had products of a Serbian military equipment company Valir on board.
The aircraft’s pilot reported an engine failure and was cleared for an emergency landing at Kavala Airport, but the plane went off the radar ten nautical miles west of Kavala, the media said.
Several posts purportedly depicting the aftermath of the catastrophe are circulating online.
The Antonov aircraft was eventually found near the village of Palaiochori in the Paggaio municipality.
The Hellenic Fire Service’s special disaster management unit (EMAK) said in a statement that the plane crashed between Antifilippi and Palaiochori on Saturday evening and that over a dozen firefighters and seven vehicles were working on extinguishing the blaze.
According to Greek media reports, the plane caught on fire while still in the air and a power outage was reported in the area, likely due to the aircraft having damaged the power lines.
Witnesses told ERT that the plane crashed into a corn field and caught on fire after a series of explosions.