Debris of missing Canadian NATO helicopter found off Greece

Debris from a Canadian military helicopter operating as part of a NATO surveillance force has been found in the sea between Greece and Italy, a Greek military source said Thursday.

The helicopter was attached to the Canadian frigate Fredericton, from which it had taken off for a patrol.

"Debris has been found in Italy's zone of control and intervention" in the Ionian Sea, the military source told AFP, specifying the wreckage belonged to the Canadian helicopter.

"Greece has sent a marine helicopter to participate in the rescue operation," the source said.

Six crew were aboard the helicopter when it disappeared Wednesday, he said.

Greek public television reported that a body had been found amid the wreckage in international waters off the Greek island of Kefalonia.

But the military source did not immediately confirm the report.

The Canadian armed forces earlier issued a statement confirming a search was underway after contact was lost with the helicopter.

"There is a developing situation regarding one of our CH-148 Cyclone helicopters, deployed onboard HMCS FREDERICTON, which is currently contributing to Op REASSURANCE," the Canadian armed forces said in a statement.

"Contact was lost with the aircraft as it was participating in Allied exercises off the coast of Greece. Search and rescue efforts are currently underway," it added.

The statement did not give details on how many personnel were on board.

Initial reports said the helicopter had been over international waters 50 nautical miles off Kefalonia, the Greek air force said.

Italian, Greek and Turkish frigates also took part in the patrol that had moved from Greek to Italian waters on Wednesday, with the Greek frigate remaining in Greek waters.

Greek naval and air forces were ready to assist in a rescue operation "if Italy requests it", a military source told AFP earlier.

A spokesperson for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), which plans and carries out all NATO operations, added: "I confirm there has been an incident involving a helicopter from a ship under NATO command.

"There is currently a search and rescue operation being conducted and national notifications taking place."

Related Links
Aerospace News at SpaceMart.com

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Air Force awards $258.7M to Dataminr for push alerts system
Washington DC (UPI) Apr 23, 2020
The Air Force has awarded Dataminr with a five-year, $258.7 million contract to develop a system of push alerts, the Pentagon announced Thursday. The contract funds a commercially available license subscription that can "leverage a variety of publicly available information sources, evaluate content to detect emerging events as they are developing and push alerts to users based on user-defined areas and topics of interest." The contract also requires that the solution Dataminr develops be ... read more