Four crew members of two helicopters that were participating in the firefighting efforts for the wildfires declared in southern Greece have been injured after a mid-air collision recorded this Sunday in the vicinity of one of the active hotspots in the Psatha area.
The country's Fire Department has detailed that both aircraft collided with each other while trying to extinguish the large fire in Attica-Boeotia, which affects Porto Germeno, Psatha, Fokida, Megara, and Cephalonia, a broad front where more than 500 firefighting personnel have been working tirelessly for over 72 hours to try to stabilize the flames.
According to information published by the newspapers Kathimerini and Protothema, each helicopter had a Romanian pilot and a Greek coordinator on board. According to these sources, there are fears for the life of two of the injured, who were found unconscious and urgently transferred to the General Hospital of the 251st Air Force.
Both helicopters had taken off from Elefsina airport before joining the firefighting tasks. The competent authorities have opened an investigation to clarify the causes and precise circumstances of this serious air incident.