Two crew members were killed when two firefighting helicopters collided in mid-air while responding to a large wildfire on the Attica-Boeotia border in Greece. The collision took place about 65 kilometres west of Athens as the leased Bell helicopters were supporting efforts to contain fires during a period of widespread heat and evacuations.
The dead were a Danish pilot and a Greek fire-service liaison officer. A British pilot and another Greek liaison officer aboard the second helicopter survived with minor injuries. They remained conscious and were admitted to hospital for 24 hours of observation as a precaution, according to a civil protection ministry source. Their names had not been released.
Video from the area showed one helicopter contacting the rotor system of the other aircraft. One then caught fire and fell into a ravine. The second helicopter was able to make an emergency landing in an area covered by low vegetation. Greek media reported that its two survivors immediately notified authorities and helped direct rescuers toward the crash location.
The Greek Fire Service said both aircraft were operated under lease from Australian company McDermott Aviation. Rescuers initially recovered one crew alive, while the occupants of the other aircraft were found unconscious and later declared dead. Founder and president John McDermott said the company was assisting the relevant authorities with their investigation and offered condolences to the people affected.
All Bell helicopters operating in Greece were grounded under protocol after the collision, the ministry source said. Other aircraft, including Erickson Air-Crane and Chinook helicopters and Canadair water bombers, continued firefighting work. The British survivor was a privately hired seasonal pilot, not part of a United Kingdom deployment, and Greece had not requested British assistance.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed sorrow over the deaths and sent condolences to the two victims’ families. The accident occurred while more than 500 firefighters had reportedly been working across several areas over the preceding 72 hours, including Porto Germeno, Psatha, Fokida, Megara and Kefalonia. Greece had also carried out mass evacuations as fires spread. France and Spain had recently fought major blazes near Bordeaux and Madrid, where evacuated residents were beginning to return after containment. The published account did not identify a formal finding on why the two helicopters came into contact.
Wildfire operations continued despite the grounding of the Bell fleet, using other helicopter types and fixed-wing water bombers. That distinction matters because the safety response applied to one aircraft category rather than suspending Greece’s entire aerial campaign. Authorities had not announced whether mechanical, operational or visibility factors contributed to the contact.
