Forest Fire Near Athens

Firefighting helicopters collide in midair

A firefighting helicopter in action in Porto Germeno, northwest of Athens(Bild: AP/Michael Varaklas)

Two firefighting helicopters collided in Greece on Sunday while battling a large forest fire northwest of Athens. Two people on board one helicopter—a Greek and a Danish national—were killed, the fire department reported. The crew of the other helicopter—a Greek and a British national—survived. The cause of the accident remained unclear as of Sunday evening.

Conditions on Sunday were considered extremely difficult, making the operation in the Psatha region west of Athens correspondingly risky: As the two helicopters hovered in the air, they continued to draw closer to one another. Eventually, one helicopter’s rotor struck the other’s. Shortly thereafter, it burst into flames and crashed to the ground.

Fire department officials stated that they had “immediately mobilized rescue teams to locate and assist the crews.” 

Here is the video of the collision. Warning: the images are disturbing:

“The pilots were taken to the hospital unconscious, where they were pronounced dead,” said fire department spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakogiannis on television. This brings the number of emergency responders killed in the wildfires to five: Two firefighters had previously lost their lives in Crete, and another on the Peloponnese peninsula. The other two pilots survived the crash and were able to bring their helicopter down with an emergency landing, Greek radio reported. They sustained injuries.

The two aircraft involved in the accident were Bell helicopters. All Bell helicopters in the region were subsequently grounded pending the completion of an investigation, as reported by ERT. The helicopters had been leased from the Australian company McDermott Aviation and were part of a fleet of 15 aircraft. The company has been supporting operations in Greece for seven years.

Authorities had previously issued multiple warnings that strong winds were making aerial firefighting operations dangerous. As a result, most firefighting aircraft remained grounded. “When the wind blows with such force, even the dozens of aircraft at our disposal cannot be deployed safely,” wrote conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Facebook.

Fire Approaches Athens
Meanwhile, the flames from the severe wildfire about 50 kilometers west of Athens have spread to within a few kilometers of the city of Megara, which has a population of about 36,000. According to initial estimates, more than 10,000 hectares of forest, as well as homes, barns, and farmland, have been destroyed since Friday, reported Greek broadcaster ERT.

The epicenter of the wildfires in Greece is located about 50 kilometers west of the capital, Athens. Hundreds of emergency responders, including firefighters from Romania and France, are battling a massive blaze there that is raging around the densely forested Kithairon mountain range. “The situation is chaotic,” said the mayor of Megara, the region’s largest city, on Greek radio.