Sofia, 29 November 2021 (MIA) – Besa Trans owner Bekim Haxhiu said in an interview with BNT that the bus was inspected at a service station before it departed from Turkey, MIA reports from Sofia. He rejected the possibility that passengers were transporting flammable substances, adding that he and his family took part in the excursion, but were travelling in different busses. Haxhiu told BNT that the bus was made in 2007, but Besa Trans bought it some three years ago. According to the owner, the vehicle never had any technical issues. He explained that four busses were part of the excursion. Haxhiu said that he found out about the accident when the bus he and his wife were travelling in reached the border between North Macedonia and Bulgaria. He immediately took a taxi to the scene of the accident where he stayed for hours. He refused to comment on the cause of the accident, due to the ongoing investigation, but noted that three weeks prior to the incident, the bus had undergone a technical inspection, adding that all Besa Trans busses go through the same process before each excursion. “Before departing for Turkey all busses are sent for an inspection and the process is repeated once reaching Istanbul. The bus was in order. If it wasn’t we would have been notified to fix it,” Besa Trans’s owner said. Moreover, he stressed that the bus wasn’t carrying additional fuel tanks and it was filled with enough gas in Istanbul to return to Skopje and back to Istanbul again. Due to thorough inspections at Bulgarian borders, passengers couldn’t have been carrying highly flammable substances. “Each bus has extra tanks, but these are water tanks,” Haxhiu noted He stressed that the bus drivers were experienced professionals, who had driven that road many times. The two drivers made all the necessary stops. Haxhiu also confirmed that the bus couldn’t drive faster than 100 km/h due to factory limitations. BNT conducted the interview with the Besa Trans owner at his lawyer’s office in Sofia. Bekim Haxhiu said that he hasn’t talked to the media so far due to shock, noting that he’s stayed in Bulgaria to help investigators determine the cause of the accident. 45 passengers were killed in the bus accident that happened in Bulgaria on November 23.