A helicopter carrying two Romanian citizens crashed into the sea, in Greece, during a firefighting mission. A Moldovan with Romanian citizenship – who was a co-pilot – and a Greek citizen died. There were two other Moldovans on board, one of them with Romanian citizenship, who survived.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs transmitted that one of the victims had dual citizenship (of Romania and the Republic of Moldova) and one of the Moldovan survivors also had Romanian citizenship.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), through the Romanian Embassy in Athens, notified itself following the information published in the media regarding the crash, on the afternoon of July 13, 2022, of a helicopter participating in a mission to extinguish the fire in the area of Palaiochori, on the island of Samos, Hellenic Republic, and took urgent action to obtain information on the nationality, identity and health of the affected persons. According to the information provided by the Greek authorities, the helicopter crew consisted of four people, and two of them also held Romanian citizenship.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs that, as a result of the accident, two people died. One of the victims had dual citizenship (of Romania and the Republic of Moldova), and the other was a citizen of the Hellenic Republic. Of the two injured persons, one has dual citizenship (of Romania and the Republic of Moldova), and the other person holds the citizenship of the Republic of Moldova. The injured are hospitalized in a medical unit in Samos and are currently out of danger.
The helicopter took off from Samos yesterday afternoon to take part in extinguishing the fires. The accident occurred after about an hour and 20 minutes of flying. The statements of the two survivors are expected to shed light on the causes of the tragedy. One of the two Moldovans, who was on the run, said the helicopter was overturned by a strong gust as it approached the sea surface to extract water. All the passengers were found in the sea.