Chinook cockpit raised from Aegean seabed
Salvage teams in the northern Aegean yesterday succeeded in raising from the seabed the cockpit of an army helicopter that crashed on September 11, killing all 17 occupants, including senior clerics on a visit to Mount Athos. The navy-led operation employed low-tech means, such as air balloons, to raise the smashed remains of the Chinook’s cockpit from a depth of 866 meters some 13 kilometers southwest of the autonomous monastic community, at one of the deepest points of the northern Aegean. The salvage bid started at the beginning of October, with the participation of navy ships and the Aegaio oceanographic research vessel, which first located the wreckage four days after the crash. Last Sunday, one of the engines was raised. Petros, Patriarch of Alexandria and head of the Orthodox Church in Africa, died in the crash. The wreckage is expected to help pinpoint the causes of the accident.
