Mid-air collision: Two firefighting helicopters crash while battling wildfire near Athens | VIDEO
Athens: Two firefighting helicopters collided on Sunday whilst deployed against a wind-fuelled wildfire in the Porto Germeno district, located west of Athens, with video footage capturing one of the aircraft crashing into the terrain.
The Hellenic Fire Service noted that each helicopter carried a flight deck contingent of two personnel, confirming that a search-and-rescue mission had been launched, though officials withheld immediate details concerning the status of the aviators.
The mid-air impact highlighted the persistent hazards facing the most volatile theatre of Europe's escalating wildfire crisis.
The continent-wide emergency fragmented into three distinct fronts: gale-force winds drove blazes further into the Athenian periphery and necessitated fresh displacements; French authorities monitored a smouldering expanse measuring four times the land area of Paris; and major conflagrations across Spain finally checked their advance.
The gravest immediate threat centred on Greece, where infernos swept across western Attica—the territory enveloping the capital—endangering local settlements and an industrial zone near Megara as severe gusts grounded water-scooping aircraft from operating over the sea.
The crisis evoked painful memories for a populace still scarred by the 2018 Mati disaster, which claimed 104 lives to stand as Europe's most fatal fire event of the current century.
Further west, successful containment lines failed to bring closure to the catastrophe. France's most extensive wildfire stayed locked within its containment perimeter after displacing 224,000 residents in what is feared to be the nation's largest peacetime civilian evacuation.
Active hot spots continued to simmer within a 420-square-kilometre burn scar, myriad citizens remained barred from their properties, and nearly 3,000 personnel battled both the Gironde megafire and an additional, uncontained blaze in Provence.
Collectively, the disasters in France and Spain have compelled approximately one-third of a million individuals to abandon residences and holiday retreats, depopulating communities at the peak of the European summer holiday season while stretching civil protection agencies across concurrent emergencies.
AP