Authorities are investigating the landing of a red helicopter on Milos’ Sarakiniko beach, an incident that triggered strong reactions after the aircraft touched down Friday on the area’s white volcanic rocks.
The Syros prosecutor ordered a preliminary inquiry into possible aviation-law violations or other criminal acts and directed checks of the flight plan and the role of Milos air traffic control. The Civil Aviation Authority also asked the helicopter’s owner-pilot to explain the landing.
Doulis Karafil, president of Air Business International, said the law allows helicopter landings outside heliports if the property owner permits them and the pilot judges the site safe and non-damaging. “The issue is not why the helicopter landed in Sarakiniko, but why Sarakiniko has not been designated as Natura. The state, for its own reasons, has not designated it as Natura. So, the pilot saw no prohibition and landed there.”
Milos, like many summer destinations Greece, does not have a heliport. This does not mean, however, that helicopters do not fly to these places, he says. When they do, they find informal landing sites. Karafil gives some examples. “In Kythnos we land outside the Aria restaurant, in Isthmia in Kavos. When they want to go to Meteora, the helicopter lands in the courtyard of a tavern in Kalambaka,” he explains.
