An eyewitness who captured the incident on video described the moment of the firefighting helicopter crash into Lake Aoös in Metsovo. According to the witness, the helicopter appeared to struggle to gain altitude after lifting off from the lake’s surface before losing height and plunging into the water. Aris Spandonidis was on the scene filming when he saw the helicopter “above us, and then I watched it begin a water-scooping operation.”
“At some point I saw it emptying its tanks and I shouted to my friend, ‘there’s a problem, something’s wrong — it can’t gain altitude, it’s been taking too long to fill up.’ And then the tragic thing happened: the tail dipped into the water, it lost altitude, they tried to pull it up. I think I may have seen the pilots getting out, I’m not sure. It starts to spin, the rotors hit the water, there’s an explosion, it catches fire, and it sinks,” Mr. Spandonidis told MEGA.
The eyewitness, who recorded the incident on video, described the moment a firefighting helicopter crashed into Lake Aoös in Metsovo while conducting a water-scooping operation in support of wildfire suppression efforts in Grevena. He noted that the helicopter appeared to struggle to lift off from the lake’s surface before losing altitude and going down into the water.
Helicopter crash in Metsovo: What the eyewitness captured
Aris Spandonidis was on location filming when he spotted the helicopter “above us, and then watched it begin a water-scooping operation.” “At some point I saw it emptying its tanks and I shouted to my friend, ‘there’s a problem, something’s wrong — it can’t gain altitude, it’s been taking too long to fill up.’ And then the tragic thing happened: the tail dipped into the water, it lost altitude, they tried to pull it up. I think I may have seen the pilots getting out, I’m not sure. It starts to spin, the rotors hit the water, there’s an explosion, it catches fire, and it sinks,” Mr. Spandonidis told MEGA.
He continued: “We ran over to the other side, split up with our dogs to try to find them. I wasn’t able to find them myself. About ten minutes later I saw someone emerge onto a small island. I called the police and gave them the exact coordinates.”
“Within seven to ten minutes of the crash, the police and fire service arrived. The mayor came too. The EMAK rescue unit and the ambulance couldn’t get there because the Egnatia motorway was closed. The lake isn’t easy to access — it’s a 15 to 20 kilometre road — but everyone arrived in time. Something is working in Greece. Not everything can be broken,” he said.
The two helicopter pilots swam to a shallow area in the lake, where they were picked up by a boat and handed over to an ambulance. They were subsequently transferred to Ioannina Hospital as a precautionary measure.
