Two Killed as Firefighting Helicopters Collide Battling Greek Inferno

Two firefighting helicopters collided in mid-air over Greece on Sunday as crews battled a ferocious wildfire that has already destroyed more than 100 homes northwest of Athens, killing two crew members and sending shockwaves through a country already stretched thin by summer blazes. The fire service confirmed that a Greek and a Danish national aboard one helicopter lost their lives, while a Greek and a British crew member aboard the second aircraft survived the crash near Psatha in the Attica region. Video circulating online appeared to show the two aircraft crossing paths at low altitude before one struck the other and went down in flames, though the footage has not been independently verified. Authorities have opened an investigation into the cause of the collision.

The tragedy unfolded even as a separate wildfire forced evacuations on the popular tourist island of Kefalonia, underscoring how thinly Greece's firefighting resources are being stretched this summer. Investigators believe the Attica blaze, which began in the neighboring region of Boeotia before spreading, was sparked by electrical conductors linked to a private wind-power network feeding into the national grid, and two Greek nationals have already been arrested on suspicion of negligence while a third suspect remains at large. Gale-force winds that initially drove the fire near Porto Germeno eventually eased, but flames pushed south into the settlement of Veniza and a military firing range, setting off unexploded ordnance and forcing emergency crews to shift focus toward protecting the coastal town of Megara, home to roughly 30,000 residents.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged the scale of the crisis in blunt terms, saying there are moments when the force of nature and weather conditions exceed all human planning and operational capability. Emergency alerts ordered evacuations across several western Attica communities, including an industrial estate near Megara, as residents in towns like Agios Konstantinos worked to hold the line against the advancing flames. The disaster adds Greece to a growing list of European nations, including France and Spain, battling extreme wildfires this summer following record heatwaves and prolonged drought conditions that scientists link to climate change, even as some blazes elsewhere on the continent showed early signs of easing over the weekend.