2 dead as firefighting helicopters collide over Greece wildfire: Officials
The crash occurred near a hillside village about 45 miles northwest of Athens.
Two firefighting helicopters working to gain control of a major wildfire in Greece collided in midair on Sunday, prompting a search-and-rescue mission for flight crew members, two of whom were killed, authorities said.
The Hellenic Fire Service, the national fire and rescue service of Greece, confirmed to ABC News that two of the four crew members aboard the two helicopters were killed, while two others survived.
Two of the crew members are Greek while two others are foreign nationals, authorities said. Authorities also confirmed that a Greek national and a Danish national were killed, while a Greek national and a British national survived.
The names of those killed and injured were not immediately released.
The midair crash unfolded near a hillside in Psatha in the Boeotia region of Greece, about 45 miles northwest of Athens, authorities said.
The crash occurred as the helicopter crews were helping to battle two fires that ignited on Saturday morning and spread rapidly amid strong wind gusts, prompting evacuations in the Boeotia and Attica regions, officials said.
Around 450 firefighters were deployed on Sunday across the two wildfire zones. It was unclear how many firefighters were at the crash site.
The Hellenic Fire Service said the helicopters had taken off from Elefsina Air Base in the western Attica region, near the wildfire area where they were operating.
Video circulating on social media that ABC News has not yet independently verified showed the two helicopters , both Bell aircraft, flying near each other when one of the aircraft appeared to make contact with the main rotor of the second aircraft.
The footage showed one helicopter plummeting to the ground, while the other appeared to stay airborne as it flew out of the camera view.
Authorities said the helicopters were leased by the Hellenic Fire Service. The company that owns the helicopters was not immediately disclosed.
The crash came just days after three firefighters were killed battling wildfires in Greece.
"I express my deepest sorrow for the tragic accident" involving the helicopters, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posted on X. "The loss of the Greek coordinator and the Danish pilot while they were operating in the major fire at Porto Germeno fills us all with grief. Sincere condolences to their families."
Two firefighters were killed Wednesday while fighting a wildfire on the southern Greek island of Crete, according to fire officials. In a separate incident, a third firefighter was killed on the same day while fighting a fire in Greece’s southern Peloponnese region, officials said.
Several large wildfires have ignited across Greece in the past week. Fueled by strong winds and drought conditions, the fires have spread quickly, according to authorities.
Wildfires have also broken out across Spain and southwestern France, including the Gironde Fire ignited on July 22 in Bordeaux, France, which has burned an area four times the size of Paris, destroying more than 240 homes and prompting about 300,000 evacuations.