A private helicopter crashed and burst into flames near a helipad on the Greek island of Sifnos on Monday evening, killing all three people on board. The pilot and two passengers died when the Bell 206 Jet Ranger came down in the Tholos area shortly before landing, fire brigade officials said.
Emergency services were alerted to the incident at approximately 6:15 p.m. local time. Firefighters and a rescue team from Syros responded to the scene, where three bodies were recovered during firefighting operations. The two passengers are believed to have been a newlywed British couple on the chartered flight, which had departed from Markopoulo in Attica. Island deputy mayor Manolis Foutoulakis said witnesses reported the aircraft experienced a mechanical failure before the crash.
The accident follows a collision between two firefighting helicopters earlier this month west of Athens that killed two crew members.