Hellenic Air Force

US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt visited the Hellenic Air Force's 110 Combat Wing air base in Larissa, central Greece Thursday and met with US personnel ahead of the temporary deployment there of American MQ-9 drones.

A Turkish helicopter and three pairs of F-16 fighter jets violated Greece's national air space on several occasions on Monday and entered the Athens Flight Informational Region.

They were chased off by Greek air force pilots, who had to engage in mock dogfights in two instances, the state-run ANA-MPA news agency reported.

Defense Minister Panos Kammenos Wednesday reacted to a statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry disputing Greece's territorial sovereignty over the eastern Aegean Imia islets saying that the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which forged modern Greece and Turkey's borders, "is binding for us and NATO and Turkey."

Two Turkish fighter aircraft reportedly harassed the Chinook helicopter carrying Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the Greek Armed Forces Chief Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis as they were flying from the islet of Ro to Rhodes on Tuesday afternoon.

Soldiers fire a salute at the funeral of Hellenic Air Force Captain Giorgos Baltadoros in his native village of Morfovouni in Karditsa, northern Greece. The 34-year-old father of two was killed when his Mirage jet went down near the island of Skyros on Thursday while he was flying in conditions of poor visibility.

The death of a Greek fighter jet pilot on Thursday whose Mirage 2000-5 crashed into the sea north of the central Aegean island of Skyros after returning from a mission to intercept Turkish jets is a grim reminder of the deadly tally incurred by the Hellenic Air Force in the last few decades.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday paid tribute to the Greek air force pilot who was killed when his Mirage 2000-5 crashed into the central Aegean shortly before landing on the island of Skyros earlier in the day.

The Greek fighter jet pilot who was killed on Thursday when his plane crashed into the central Aegean, was identified by the Hellenic Air Force as Captain Giorgos Baltadoros.

A search was under way after a Hellenic Air Force fighter jet crashed into the sea off the coast of Skyros. 

The Mirage 2000-5 jet fell some nine miles northeast of the island which is part of the Sporades group near the central Aegean, according to a statement issued by the Hellenic Air Force. 

The Greek air force has intercepted a Turkish military drone that violated Greece's national airspace in the southeastern Aegean, Kathimerini has learned.

The Turkish Anka unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV ANKA) twice entered Greek airspace above the Dodecanese island of Rhodes, at an altitude of 19,000-20,000 feet on Thursday.