The bodies of two army pilots, whose helicopter crashed in Kymi, central Evia, on Wednesday, were recovered yesterday.

Army authorities announced two days of mourning after the charred remains of Dimitris Skouras, 36, and Athanassios Kakambakos, 33, were found in the wreckage of the Apache helicopter reported as missing on Wednesday evening. The funerals of the two men are due today. The helicopter, which had been participating in an exercise to test a surface-to-air missile system, disappeared off the radar shortly after 8 p.m. on Wednesday. The crew of another helicopter reported hearing a series of explosions shortly afterward.

The cause of the crash was unclear but military sources said it was possible that the helicopter had struck a mountain ledge as it had been flying at low altitude.

President Karolos Papoulias and Defense Minister Evangelos Meimarakis expressed their condolences to the families of the victims.