Plea for answer on crash
The father of a 25-year-old priest killed when a military helicopter crashed off Halkidiki, northern Greece, three years ago has pleaded with the prime minister for the investigation into the accident to be concluded. Speaking to Kathimerini, the 59-year-old father of Nektarios Kontogiorgos, revealed he has asked Costas Karamanlis to find out why the Chinook helicopter crashed on September 11, 2004. All 17 people aboard the air force helicopter were killed. The party included senior clerics, such as Petros, the patriarch of Alexandria and head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Africa. Nektarios was the archdeacon at the Alexandria Patriarchate. They were visiting the Mount Athos monastic community in Halkidiki. The military investigated the accident but only looked into why it took more than two hours after the crash for authorities to be notified that the helicopter had disappeared. No official cause has been given for the accident. The government has assured the Kontogiorgos family that it is doing all it can to find out what caused the helicopter to crash.
