The owner of "Besa Trans", Bekim Hadziu in an interview with BNT claims that the bus that took part in the accident on the "Struma" highway in Bulgaria, before leaving Turkey, was in service and everything was fine. According to the MIA correspondent from Sofia, Haxhiu ruled out the possibility that some of the passengers had put flammable substances in the bus.

Haxhiu confirmed that he and his family were part of an excursion to Istanbul, but traveled on other buses. His children were on the last bus.

The burnt bus was manufactured in 2007, but was purchased about three years ago. According to the owner, so far there has been no technical problem with the bus.

Hadziu said that this time four buses left the Republic of Northern Macedonia. On the way back from Turkey, the owner of the company and his wife were traveling in the bus that was traveling for the first time. At the Bulgarian-Macedonian border, on the way out of Bulgaria, Bekim Hadziu found out that his bus had crashed and took a taxi to the scene of the accident. When he arrived, he stayed at the scene for hours.

Bekim Hadziu refused to comment on the version of the accident because the investigation is ongoing. But, he said that three weeks before the accident, the bus underwent a technical inspection in S Macedonia. Additionally, before each trip, all Besa Trans vehicles were serviced.

- Before leaving for Turkey, we service them, control them, and even when we get to Istanbul and there we go to the service to check them, transport passengers, to see what the situation is. "Everything was fine when we were there for service, and when there is, they tell us to fix it immediately," explained the owner of "Besa Trans".

He denies that there were fuel pipes in the bus because the petrol they filled in Istanbul was enough to reach Skopje and then return to Istanbul. Due to the thorough checks at the Bulgarian borders, he excludes the possibility of a passenger entering the flammable substance.

- There are pipes in every bus, but with water, every bus must have them just in case. This is reserve water. There is strict control of entry into Bulgaria, luggage, driver, everything that is transported, said Haxhiu.

The owner of "Besa Trans" also said that the drivers of the bus were very experienced professionals who passed this route many times. Haxhiu explained that two drivers were enough for this 12-hour route. They strictly observed the rest hours. Confirm that the bus had factory restrictions and could not lift more than 100 km / h.

BNT conducted the interview with the owner of "Besa Trans" in the office of his lawyer in Sofia. Bekim Hadziu said he had not spoken to the media so far because he was shocked by what had happened and that he was in Bulgaria to help investigators in any way possible to determine the cause of the November 23 accident that killed 45 people.

Source: MIA

The owner of "Besa Trans" for BNT: Why I was not on that bus, to die too