The lone survivor from the crash of a Slovak military plane in northeastern Hungary reached his wife on a cell phone after escaping the flaming wreckage, Hungary's defense minister said Friday. The crash late Thursday killed the other 42 people aboard the Ukrainian-designed AN-24, mainly Slovak troops traveling home from peacekeeping duty in Kosovo, officials said. Defense Minister Ferenc Juhasz said the survivor, who suffered head injuries and burns, was in "satisfactory" condition at a hospital in the Slovak city of Kosice, about 10 miles from the crash site. Juhasz said the survivor was able to call his wife on his cellular phone from the crash site. Slovak media identified the survivor as Martin Farkas, 27. His wife, Michaela Farkasova, said she received a call from his mobile after the plane crashed. "He called me to say the plane crashed and that I should alert the police, rescuers and such," Farkasova told Slovak TA3 station in a phone interview. "He said he was alive but weak." It was not immediately clear how he got out of the plane and what happened before the crash near the Hungarian town of Hejce, just six miles from the Slovak border. "He was walking around the burning plane, looking for the best (cell phone) signal so he could seek help," Farkasova told Slovak's official TASR news agency.
