Two Greek firefighting helicopters collide over Athens wildfire, killing two

Two Bell firefighting helicopters collided in midair over the Psatha area west of Athens while attacking a wind-driven wildfire, killing two crew members and leaving two others alive. The crash happened about 65 kilometers, or 42 miles, from the Greek capital in western Attica.

Each aircraft carried a two-person crew. One helicopter went down after the impact, and the dead were identified as one Greek national and one Danish national. The two survivors, one Greek and one British national, were recovered alive after the collision in the Psatha and Porto Germeno area.

The accident unfolded during a weekend of intense fire activity around Athens, when smoke hung over parts of the city and helicopters were being used to fight flames near the capital. It also came as Greece faced separate wildfire emergencies elsewhere in the country, including deadly blazes on Crete in the days before the crash.

Beyond the immediate loss of life, the collision points to the strain on aerial firefighting as hotter, windier fire seasons push more aircraft into the same dangerous airspace. Greece has leaned heavily on helicopters to confront fast-moving blazes, including a deployment near the coastal town of Palaia Fokaia on June 26, 2025, a sign of how often crews are being sent back into the air as fire seasons intensify.

Across Europe, the Athens collision came amid record-breaking summer heat and wildfires burning in Greece, France and Spain. For pilots and ground crews, the combination of steep terrain, smoke, strong winds and crowded response flights has turned routine suppression work into a far more hazardous operation, with the risks now visible above the capital itself.