Christos Anastasiadis and Theologos Marantidis are the two passengers who lost their lives when their single-engine aircraft crashed on Sunday in the Kontariotissa area in Pieria.
Anastasiadis, 41, a father of four, was a Hellenic Air Force pilot who flew Canadair aircraft and had extensive experience with them.
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Christos Anastasiadis
His sister described in her statements the difficult times the family is going through: “This is a very difficult time. We’re in pain; we’re in a state of shock. My brother has left a family behind; we still don’t know how this happened. My brother was experienced—he was a Canadair pilot.”
Regarding the accident, the 41-year-old’s mother said: “We don’t know what happened either. I was at home when I heard the news, but I don’t know anything. We’re devastated. My son was very diligent in everything he did, in every aspect of his life.”
Theologos Marantidis
The 58-year-old Theologos Marantidis also lost his life in the accident.
President of the Pieria Flying Club: The pilot was very experienced
According to the president of the Pieria Flying Club, Yiannis Harisis, the 41-year-old was a very experienced pilot; in fact, he had served as mission leader during a firefighting operation in Spain and had logged many flight hours.
Today, he was flying his own plane and was on a practice flight with his 58-year-old friend as a passenger, who is not a pilot. They had flown together once before. As Mr. Charisis explains to protothema.gr, a familiarization flight is conducted so that people can see what flying is like, what light aircraft are like, and whether anyone might enjoy it and be interested in pursuing the hobby.
The 41-year-old pilot took off and had already been in the air for 40 minutes before his aircraft crashed to the ground, killing him and the 58-year-old man. “He was in contact with me right up until the very last second. He asked me if he could make a low flyover of the runway. This is something pilots routinely do before landing, and there were no problems during the flight,” said Mr. Charisis, explaining that this is a flyby pilots perform as a standard procedure to assess conditions on the runway.
The 41-year-old made a flyby, then gained altitude, performed an unfortunate maneuver, and unfortunately crashed. “There was no problem with the aircraft; it was in perfect condition,” Mr. Harisis emphasized.
The second man who lost his life was a passenger who enjoyed flying and was possibly working toward getting his pilot’s license as well. “It was only his second time flying; he had flown before, enjoyed it, and wanted to do it again.”
The timeline of the tragedy
The accident occurred at noon on Sunday, when the single-engine aircraft crashed into a dry riverbed, near the runway of the Pieria Flying Club in Kontariotissa.
According to the Fire Department, the Operations Center was notified of the crash at approximately 1:50 p.m., and eight firefighters with four vehicles were dispatched to the scene.
Upon the arrival of the fire department, the two passengers were found outside the aircraft, unconscious.
The firefighters transported them to a safe location, where they were picked up by EKAB ambulances. They were then taken to Katerini Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. No fire broke out as a result of the crash.
The exact circumstances under which the aircraft lost altitude and crashed have not yet been clarified.
Source: Proto Thema
