Hellenic Air Force

The site in Kalamata, southern Greece, where a pilot crashed and died on Wednesday. The Defense Ministry declared three days of mourning for the Armed Forces. The 40-year-old Epameinondas Kosteas was killed when his Hellenic Air Force T-2 Buckeye training jet crashed near the Kalamata airbase in the Peloponnese. He was the only person aboard the aircraft.

The pilot of a Hellenic Air Force T-2 Buckeye training jet that crashed Wednesday near the Kalamata airbase in the Peloponnese has been confirmed dead. The pilot was the only person aboard the aircraft.

In a statement, the Hellenic Air Force Air Staff identified the deceased pilot as Squadron Leader Epaminondas Kostas, aged 40.

The causes of the crash remain unknown.

A search-and-rescue operation was initiated on Wednesday following the crash of a Hellenic Air Force T-2 Buckeye training jet near the Kalamata airbase in the Peloponnese. The pilot's condition is currently unknown.

Reports suggest that an explosion was heard before the crash.

Further details are not yet available.

Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias emphatically stated on Friday that it is not possible at the moment for the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) to leave state control, saying, indicatively, that "without the HAI we cannot live."

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - The Greek flag flies prominently outside the Korean War Memorial in South Korea's bustling capital. Inside the huge complex, video screens list the Greek soldiers who gave their lives as part of the United Nations to rebuff first North Korean and then Chinese invaders.

Defense Minister Nikos Dendias has stressed the need for an upgrade of the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (EAV), which he said "has been absolutely problematic for decades."

A visit to flood-stricken Thessaly by EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, initially scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed until October 5 as a new wave of wet weather is hitting the same region, Greece's Agricultural Development and Food Minister Lefteris Avgenakis announced.

The large wildfire in Aspropyrgos, western Greece, reached the perimeter of the Hellenic Air Force's 112 Combat Wing at Elefsina Air Base earlier on Tuesday but was quickly stopped, Greek media reported.

The explosions in late July at a Hellenic Air Force ammunitions depot near the town of Nea Anchialos in central Greece has prompted a discussion on new security and fire safety protocols, and the replacement of tired infrastructure that can only just accommodate the military's increasingly modern technological capabilities.

Τhe shock of the ammunition depot blast on a Hellenic Air Force base near Volos in central Greece on July 27 has brought back the debate on whether the current infrastructure can accommodate new armaments. Tellingly, the hangars that currently exist at the Hellenic Air Force airports are unsuitable to accommodate a fifth-generation aircraft.