Hellenic Air Force

Sixteen Greek nationals, a Cypriot, nine Romanians and 8 Finns have landed on board a Hellenic Air Force transport aircraft at Tanagra air base following their evacuation from Sudan via Jordan and Djibouti.

The C-27J Spartan transport carrier, which landed shortly after 4 p.m. on Wednesday, contained several children.

The first group of Greeks and their families being evacuated from war-torn Sudan arrived at the Elefsina air base west of Athens on Tuesday morning.

A Hellenic Air Force transport plane brought the 13 Greeks and four spouses of different nationalities, who had been taken to Djibouti and from there to Egypt before being flown back home.

A C-27 transport aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force took off on Monday afternoon from Aswan Airport in Egypt to Djibouti to collect the Greeks who have been transferred there from war-torn Sudan.

The flight back to Greece is most likely to depart for Greece on Tuesday.

The Hellenic Air Force (HAF) begins its annual medium-scale exercise Iniochos out of the Andravida Air Base in the Northwest Peloponnese on Monday. 

The multinational exercise runs until May 4 and will include the participation of the air forces of Cyprus, France, India, Italy, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Spain and the United States. 

The Greek Defense Ministry is expected to decide next week whether Athens will propose to Lockheed Martin the inclusion of SSI (security, supply, information) and infrastructure programs in the F-35 fighter jets package with the participation of the Greek defense industry.

The funeral was held Friday in the village of Granitis, near the northern Greek town of Drama, of a Hellenic Air Force pilot who was killed after his combat aircraft crashed in the Ionian Sea. 

The F-4E Phantom II of Captain Efstathios Tsitlakidis, 31, went down during a training exercise Monday. Co-pilot, Lieutenant Marios Touroutsikas, 29, also died in the accident.

The funeral was held in the southern town of Tripoli on Thursday of a Hellenic Air Force officer aboard the F-4E Phantom II jet that crashed in the Ionian Sea on Monday. The plane went down during a training exercise, and the body of the co-pilot, Lieutenant Marios Touroutsikas, 29, was discovered shortly after.

The funeral of a Hellenic Air Force officer aboard the two-seater F-4E Phantom II fighter jet that crashed in the Ionian Sea on Monday was held at the Peloponnesian city of Tripoli on Thursday.

At a time when the Hellenic Air Force is mourning the loss of two pilots in an accident on Monday, a total of 23 Turkish aircraft, 18 of which were armed, carried out 14 violations of Greek airspace and 12 violations of the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR) on Wednesday, authorities said.

The 22 Turkish F-16s and one spy plane flew in formations of four and in pairs. 

President Katerina Sakellaropoulou will attend both funerals of the Hellenic Air Force officers aboard the F-4 "Phantom" fighter jet that crashed in the Ionian Sea on Monday.