British tourist killed by helicopter propeller in Greece; 3 arrested, including pilot. Jack Fenton, 22, died after walking into the still spinning chopper blades at Athens area helipad after returning from Mykonos.
A British tourist was killed by a helicopter propeller after landing in Greece, and now the pilot and two members of the ground crew are facing negligent homicide charges, according to reports.
A group of British tourists returning from Mykonos landed at a private heliport in Spata and were supposed to get into cars to head to Athens International Airport, where they planned to board a private jet to return to the United Kingdom. But after the chopper landed, Jack Fenton, 22, from Kent, died after walking into a still spinning rotor blade on the Bell 407.
Ioannis Kandyllis, president of Greece’s committee for aviation accidents, said four passengers, including Fenton, disembarked from the chopper and were escorted back to a private lounge to await their flight back to London. But as they were in the lounge, the victim broke away and returned to the tarmac, “rushing to the helicopter at a fast pace,” Kandyllis said, according to The Telegraph.
Jack Fenton Helicopter Video
“Witnesses we spoke to said he had a phone to his ear and was walking fast to the aircraft, defying ground crew shouting to him ‘Stop, stop!’ Within seconds the tragic accident occurred. It was horrific,” he said.
Jack Fenton Helicopter Accident Video
But friends who were traveling with Fenton, a junior account executive at a social media marketing firm, adamantly denied parts of Kandyllis’s story, including that Fenton was on the phone.
Read More: Tony Dow Cause of Death – How did he die? Read Tony Dow illness
“No instructions were given when exiting the helicopter and no one escorted us to the lounge. All they did was open the doors for us,” Fenton’s friend, Jack Stanton-Gleaves, 20, told MailOnline. “We disembarked on our own and no one stopped Jack from going to the rear of the helicopter. None of us reached the lounge before the accident happened.”
“I’ve heard people say Jack was on his phone and ran back to the helicopter and this is totally untrue,” he added. “He was not on his phone and why he turned towards the rear of the helicopter I don’t know.”