Μake us preferred on Google Uproar has broken out over footage showing a helicopter landing on the rocks of Sarakiniko, the well-known beach on Milos, so its passengers could get out and swim. The incident took place on Friday, August 7, and has since drawn public criticism as well as a criminal inquiry from the prosecutor’s office on Syros, which has opened an investigation.
According to the footage and the information released so far, the helicopter landed directly on the rock formations at Sarakiniko in the afternoon. The passengers got out, walked to the water and swam, then boarded the helicopter again and left. The video was released by a Milos business owner, who confirmed it was authentic and had not been generated or altered with artificial intelligence.
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Two authorities are investigating
Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority said it has opened a formal review of the landing, citing its oversight powers under Law 4757/2020, the country’s aviation code. Investigators are examining whether the flight complied with standard procedures, flight rules and operational requirements. Both the pilot and the helicopter’s owner have been summoned to give an account of what happened, and the pilot is scheduled to appear before the authority on Monday.
The Civil Aviation Authority also said it is revising presidential decree 19/2009, which governs helicopter transport in Greece, with added focus on flight safety.
Separately, the prosecutor’s office on Syros, which has jurisdiction over the Cyclades, ordered a preliminary inquiry into the landing on its own initiative. Investigators have been instructed to collect the evidence needed to determine whether charges should be brought against those involved.
Part of a wider dispute over Sarakiniko
The incident comes just months after residents and officials on Milos publicly clashed over construction activity near Sarakiniko, a dispute that had already raised questions.
Sarakiniko is known locally as Milos’s “lunar landscape,” a stretch of bare white volcanic rock on the island’s northern coast.
