BREAKING NEWS: Sky News interrupted as presenter issues tragic double d3ath update
Sky News correspondent Barnaby Papadopulos brought viewers a tragic update (Image: Sky News)
Sky News interrupted its usual broadcast to bring a tragic update as firefighters continue to battle wildfires in Greece. Correspondent Barnaby Papadopulos sadly confirmed two firefighters had died in a helicopter crash, which had earlier been reported on the channel with a video clip showing two helicopters colliding.
“A huge wildfire northwest of Athens in Attica, and…two firefighters have died as a result of that helicopter collision. We do know a little bit more about the crew members on board those helicopters….Search and rescue teams have located the crew of one helicopter. They’ve been found safe. They were a Greek national and also a British national on board one of those helicopters. And of course, two people on the other helicopter have died. They were a Greek and a Danish national,” he confirmed. “The Greek Fire service says an investigation into the cause of the crash has now been launched,” he added.
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Continuing with his report, he said: “Just hours before this happened, the Greek Prime Minister put out a statement warning that because of very high winds, it might be hard for some firefighting helicopters and planes to even take off.
“There have been a number of fatalities in Greece over the last week as firefighters battle huge fires, not just in Attica but also on the island of Crete and in the Peloponnese. Two firefighters died in Crete, and a firefighter died in the Peloponnese region, too.
“And as we’ve been reporting for weeks now, these firefires in Greece join huge wildfires in France and Spain too, as the whole of Europe really grapples with extraordinarily high temperatures, and as we’re seeing in Greece today, very high winds as well, which is causing those fires to spread and hampering efforts to deal with them,” he said.
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The location where two firefighting helicopters crashed in Viotia region, west of Athens, (Image: Getty)
The helicopters involved in the incident had taken off from the Elefsina military airport. Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Evangelos Tournas said: “The very strong to gale-force winds continue to create exceptionally difficult conditions.”
Extreme turbulence was preventing some aircraft from collecting water or approaching the fires closely enough to make drops, he said.
Meteorologist Theodore Giannaros said the search and rescue crews are “working under very, very difficult conditions”. He told BBC News: “Since last Wednesday, my country has been experiencing very bad fire weather,” he says, adding that the fire has already burned more than 100,000 hectares of land in Greece.
“So conditions are very difficult, and both crews on the ground and through the air experience all this difficulty in containing this large event.”
