Pilot Dead after Greek Air Force Plane Crashes North of Sparta

The pilot of a two-seater Greek Air Force aircraft was killed after the plane crashed north of Sparta at 8:50 am on Tuesday during a training flight, according to the Athens News Agency.

Both men had abandoned the aircraft and the co-pilot was found alive. He was taken to the Kalamata Hospital and he is in good condition. However, the pilot’s body was discovered later.

The Hellenic Air force named the pilot Nicholaos Vassiliou. It said that both men were experienced pilots with more than 2,500 hours of flying experience.

The plane was one of the oldest of the Greek Air Force

The aircraft was a T-2 Buckeye, one of the oldest airplanes of the Greek Air Force, used for training purposes only. The two air force men were on a training flight.

It was the United States Navy’s intermediate training aircraft, intended to introduce U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps student naval aviators and student naval flight officers to jets.

It entered service in 1959, beginning the replacement process of the Lockheed T2V SeaStar, and was itself replaced by the McDonnell Douglas T-45 Goshawk in 2008.

Greek Air Force mourns pilots

The Greek Air Force has mourned several pilots whose planes crashed under different circumstances in recent years.

Greece always remembers Giorgos Baltadoros, the fighter pilot who died April 12, 2018 when his Mirage 2000-5 plane crashed into the Aegean, after a mission intercepting Turkish jets which had violated Greek airspace.

Konstantinos Iliakis had earlier joined those of Greek military personnel over the years who fell in the line of duty while protecting the country.

It was 23 May 2006 when the 35-year-old Hellenic Air Force pilot lost his life as his plane crashed on Karpathos island in the Dodecanese.

He had been trying to intercept Turkish fighter jets which had entered Greek airspace over the Aegean.