The two-man crew of a firefighting helicopter in Greece was killed in a mid-air collision with another chopper Sunday as both aircraft were deployed to battle a wildfire near Athens, a fire department spokesman said.
“The pilots… were taken unconscious to hospital, where their death was confirmed,” the fire department’s director of communications Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said in a televised address.
State broadcaster ERT had earlier reported that one crewmember had been found safe, while rescuers were searching for the second.
Television footage showed one of the helicopters explode and plunge to the ground in flames after an apparent rotor collision.
Nearly 500 firefighters were battling blazes around the popular coastal village of Porto Germeno, 70 kilometres northwest of Athens, the fire department said.
They were attempting to keep the fire from approaching the western outskirts of Athens after it scaled a mountain overnight.
Some 100 firefighters were fighting another blaze in Aigialia in the northern Peloponnese.
A new fire broke out late Saturday on the Ionian Sea island of Cephalonia, Greece’s popular holiday destination.
A 44-year-old man was arrested Sunday in Cephalonia on suspicion of deliberately starting the fire, according to the Greek news agency ANA.
The National Observatory’s climate tracker meteo.gr said early estimates indicated that over 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) had been burned in separate fires on the Gulf of Corinth, which also swept Porto Germeno.
It added that meteorological conditions remained adverse “mainly due to strong northerly winds, which, however, have partially weakened compared to previous days”.
AFP