(VIDEO) Firefighting Helicopters Collide Near Athens as Greece Battles Wind-Driven Wildfires, Search Underway

Television footage showed one of the helicopters explode and plunge to the ground in flames following what appeared to be a rotor collision between the two aircraft. State broadcaster ERT reported that one crew member had been found safe, while rescuers continued searching for a second individual as of the most recent reporting. The two helicopters had been leased by Greece’s fire department and had taken off from Elefsina military airport before the collision occurred.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who had been briefed on the broader firefighting operation, cited the extreme weather conditions that have complicated aerial firefighting efforts across the region in recent days. “When the winds blow with such force, even the dozens of aircraft we have at our disposal cannot operate safely,” Mitsotakis wrote on Facebook, noting that gusts had reached speeds of up to 100 kilometers, or roughly 60 miles, per hour.

The collision occurred amid an intensifying firefighting operation involving nearly 500 personnel and 23 aircraft deployed to battle the blaze around Porto Germeno, a seaside community on the Gulf of Corinth roughly 40 miles northwest of Athens. Gale-force winds had repeatedly prevented firefighting aircraft from safely collecting water from the sea in the days leading up to Sunday’s collision, severely hampering the broader aerial response even before the crash occurred. Greece’s Civil Protection Minister, Evangelos Tournas, said Saturday that the country’s fire department had been “pushed to its limits” by the scale of the ongoing wildfire activity. Tournas described the specific challenge posed by the strong winds, saying they had created “extremely difficult conditions resulting in many cases where aircraft either cannot draw water or cannot carry out drops due to extreme turbulence.”

The wildfire itself began Friday near Agios Vasileios before sweeping toward Porto Germeno and into the forested mountains west of Athens. The blaze has already destroyed more than 100 homes northwest of the capital, according to reporting on the broader fire’s impact. Theodore Giannaros, a wildfire meteorologist and senior researcher at Greece’s National Observatory, said the fire around Porto Germeno appeared to have affected more than 10,000 hectares, or roughly 24,700 acres, nearly double an earlier estimate of the burned area. “It is highly likely (if not almost certain) that this particular wildfire will be classified as a megafire,” Giannaros wrote on Facebook.

Authorities have carried out multiple evacuations as the fire has spread, including the coastal communities of Kandili, Agia Skepi and Toutouli, with residents in some areas evacuated by sea when fire and smoke cut off the limited road access available from certain coastal communities. Firefighters evacuated 254 people by sea on Friday and another 12 on Saturday, according to reporting on the ongoing response. Flames have also reached a military firing range near the fire zone, activating unexploded ammunition in the area, adding an additional layer of danger for crews working nearby.

Sunday’s helicopter collision adds to a difficult stretch for Greek firefighting operations more broadly. Three firefighters have died in the line of duty in recent days, two in Crete and one in the Peloponnese, according to Greek fire department reporting. Separately, a new wildfire broke out on the Ionian Sea island of Kefalonia, forcing additional evacuations on the popular tourist destination. A 44-year-old man was arrested Sunday on the island on suspicion of deliberately starting that fire, according to the Greek news agency ANA.

Sunday’s events in Greece unfolded as wildfires continued affecting multiple countries across southern Europe amid an ongoing continental heatwave. Wildfires that had previously burned across large areas of France and Spain showed signs of easing over the weekend, even as Greece experienced a fresh wave of wildfire activity following a period of relative calm. Scientists have said the broader pattern of destructive wildfire activity across Europe this summer has been exacerbated by climate change, following an extended period of record-breaking heat and minimal rainfall across the region.

With gale-force winds having only partially subsided as of Sunday and the search for the missing helicopter crew member continuing, Greek authorities are expected to face several more difficult days managing both the immediate aftermath of the helicopter collision and the ongoing effort to contain the wildfire still burning across the mountainous terrain west of Athens.