Mount Athos helicopter crash
Hellenic Army Boeing CH-47 Chinook
From Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH) to Mount Athos
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 17 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Boeing CH-47 Chinook
- Aircraft type
- Boeing CH-47
- Category
- Helicopter · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- ES 916
- Operator
- Hellenic Army
- Onboard fatalities
- 17
- Route
- From Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)To Mount Athos
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
In the helicopter crash off Mount Athos on 11 September 2004, a Boeing-Vertol CH-47D helicopter operated by the Hellenic Army crashed into the Singitic Gulf. All 17 people on board were killed, among them Peter VII, Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa.
Sequence of events
On 11 September 2004, Patriarch Peter VII was due to travel on a visit to the Holy Mountain of Athos. The transport was provided by Greek Army Aviation with a CH-47D Chinook helicopter. The Patriarch was accompanied by 11 other clergy, most of them from the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Egypt. In addition to the four-member crew, a senior military representative was on board. At 10:54 the last signal from the helicopter was received. It crashed into the sea approx. 5.5 nautical miles (approx. 10.2 km) off Mount Athos.
Investigation and cause
Recovery and investigation
The first pieces of wreckage of the helicopter and some of the bodies were found on 11 September 2004. The Greek armed forces set up a commission of inquiry. By 22 November 2005 further parts of the helicopter had been recovered, including the flight recorder. Besides the second flight recorder, the cockpit and the front rotor could not be recovered.
It was established that the co-pilot had neither a current medical certificate nor a current professional aptitude test.
Recovered parts of the helicopter were also examined by US authorities and by the manufacturer Boeing.
Ultimately, the exact cause of the crash could not be determined.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Hubschrauberabsturz vor Athos” (revision 269796386, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Hubschrauberabsturz vor Athos
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 269796386 · 2026-08-19 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q111969108
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Hubschrauberabsturz vor Athos" (page 12237994, revision 269796386), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.