Three people were missing after a firefighting helicopter carrying four on board crashed into the sea off Greece Wednesday, the coastguard and firefighting service said.
“One person had been saved and a rescue operation is under way to find the three other members of the crew,” a coastguard official told AFP.
A fire brigade official said the helicopter “was participating in fighting a forest fire on Samos”, a mountainous island in the Aegean Sea.
The coastguard said three of its patrol vessels and two other boats were involved in the rescue operation.
The fire started around 2 pm (1100 GMT), prompting authorities to dispatch three helicopters and five planes as well as some 50 firefighters.
Strong winds hampered their efforts to bring the blaze under control, as temperatures hovered around the 30 Celsius mark (86 Fahrenheit) in Greece.
