Firefighters Killed After Helicopters Collide Mid-Air (Video)

Two firefighters were killed when a pair of helicopters collided in mid-air while battling raging wildfires near Athens, sending one aircraft plunging into a ravine in a terrifying ball of flames.

A Greek fire service coordinator and a Danish pilot died in the crash in the Psatha region of Attica, roughly 42 miles west of the Greek capital. A British pilot was among two survivors who reportedly escaped with minor injuries.

Emergency crews raced to the scene after the two U.S.-made Bell helicopters collided while taking part in a dangerous aerial firefighting mission.

Shocking video of the disaster appears to show one helicopter slowly moving toward the other before their spinning rotors strike. One of the aircraft then erupts into flames and falls from the sky, scattering wreckage across the area.

Both helicopters had taken off from the Elefsina military airport and were each carrying two crew members.

All four were rushed to the 251st Air Force General Hospital. Two were found unconscious, while the British pilot and a Greek fire service liaison officer were reportedly conscious and suffering from less serious injuries.

“The pilots were taken unconscious to hospital, where their death was confirmed,” fire department communications director Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said.

The helicopters were leased from Australia-based McDermott Aviation, which has supplied aircraft for Greek firefighting operations for the past seven years. They were part of a 15-helicopter fleet brought in to help Greece battle its relentless summer wildfires.

Officials immediately grounded all Bell helicopters operating in the region while investigators worked to determine exactly what caused the fatal collision.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the country was devastated by the deaths.

“The loss of the Greek coordinator and the Danish pilot at the time they were attempting the major fire in Porto Germeno fills us all with grief,” Mitsotakis said, extending his condolences to the victims’ families.

The horrifying crash came only hours after the prime minister warned that extreme winds were making aerial firefighting missions dangerously difficult.

“When winds blow with such intensity, even the dozens of aerial assets at our disposal cannot operate safely,” Mitsotakis wrote in a Facebook post.

He said violent turbulence had repeatedly made it impossible for aircraft to collect or drop water, leaving firefighters on the ground to bear much of the burden.

“On several occasions in recent days, it was impossible to either draw water or drop it, as extreme turbulence made flights impossible,” he said.

The crash increased the death toll from Greece’s wildfires that week to five. Three other firefighters had already died while battling separate blazes in Crete and the Peloponnese.

Nearly 500 Greek firefighters were deployed around Porto Germeno, near the Gulf of Corinth, with additional emergency crews arriving from France and Romania.

Firefighters faced brutal conditions as wind gusts topped 45 mph, causing flames to shift direction without warning.

“The situation is extremely hard, especially today,” doctor and firefighter Giorgos Doulas said. “We have really strong winds. The direction of the fire can’t be determined easily.”

Deputy fire department spokesman Yiannis Artopios said the winds were so powerful that some firefighters could not even open the doors of their emergency vehicles.

More than 100 homes were destroyed as the wind-driven flames tore through communities, forests and tourist areas. A military firing range was also among the sites affected.

In the coastal town of Agios Vasileios, more than 200 residents were evacuated by sea as the fire approached.

Around 500 people, most of them tourists, were reportedly stranded after another blaze erupted near a village in Viotia in central Greece and spread rapidly through dry vegetation.

Videos showed residents and vacationers scrambling onto boats while thick smoke swirled around the shoreline. Volunteers and emergency crews worked to move people to safety before the flames reached the town.

Wildfires also struck the Peloponnese peninsula and the popular tourist islands of Crete, Paros and Lesvos.

British officials had not advised tourists to avoid Greece entirely, but warned travelers that the wildfire risk remained high. Visitors were urged to make sure their phones were able to receive emergency alerts.

Greece was not the only European nation facing extreme conditions.

Italy placed nearly all of its major cities under the highest red alert for dangerous temperatures, with Rome, Milan, Venice and Naples among 19 cities expected to face temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit.

Successive heatwaves left forests and vegetation dangerously dry across Europe and Britain, creating ideal conditions for explosive wildfires.

In Suffolk, England, one blaze burned approximately 371 acres — an area equal to roughly 210 football fields — near the Sizewell B nuclear power station.

Authorities also reported a grim rise in heat-related deaths across Europe.

Austria recorded 395 heat-related deaths in June. Britain reported 2,877 such deaths so far that year, while France recorded 5,664 excess deaths between June 17 and July 2.

Germany’s health authority reported approximately 9,800 deaths linked to high temperatures.

The helicopter tragedy underscored the extraordinary risks taken by firefighters and pilots sent into chaotic disaster zones, where fierce winds, heavy smoke and rapidly shifting flames can turn a rescue mission deadly within seconds.