A huge search and rescue operation is taking place north of the island of Evia in Central Greece for the pilot of a private helicopter that crashed into the sea on Thursday morning.
As can be seen in the video, the helicopter dived and crashed as the weather conditions in the area were unfavorable with low clouds and heavy rains.
Authorities say that the accident involved an Agusta A109 helicopter, which took off at 10:13 am from Afidnes in Attica. It was heading to Volos. It disappeared from the radars in the wider area of Agia Anna shortly before 11:00 am.
An eyewitness told Proto Thema: “Something happened in the air that caused it to fall into the sea. It crashed at approximately 300 meters from the shore and it sank within 1.5 minutes. We quickly ran to the beach to see if we could find any evidence but nothing was found. It is lost in the sea.”
According to another eyewitness, the helicopter was “flying 5 meters above the surface of the sea, as if it was looking for something.”
Helicopter crash during storms and floods in Central Greece
Parts of Central Greece have been flooded for a second time in less than a month, as storm “Elias” batters the country with torrential rains and thunderstorms.
The worst affected areas are the city of Volos in Thessaly and northern Evia.
Evia’s main road axis, which connects the island’s south and north, has been blocked by a landslide at Derveni in the north, while trees that fell on power lines caused power cuts and water supply problems in several areas.
Fifty firefighters with twenty-eight fire engines alongside personnel from two forest operations units (EMODE), including one emergency rescue team (EMAK) unit, have been facilitating the rescuing of people who were trapped or helping with the pumping of flood waters.
More landslides were also reported at the villages of Istiea and Pefki in north Evia, where people were trapped by torrential rainwaters.
Storm in Evia is “relentlessly intense”
A meteorological station at Istiea registered more than 230,000 cubic meters of water per 0.1 hectare (1 stremma) since Wednesday morning.
In the village of Mantoudi, water in the streets is over a meter deep, while dangerous debris was carried down into the area from the mountains. At Psachna village, torrents also endangered residents.
The ‘Elias’ weather front is intense throughout the entire Central Greece Region, with phenomena in Evia being relentlessly intense, Regional Governor Fanis Spanos told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA).
This is a developing story.
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