A passenger was arrested on drug charges after a helicopter landed on the crowded Zogeria beach on the Greek island of Spetses, prompting a prosecutor's intervention and marking the second such beach landing incident in Greece in two weeks, following a similar case on Milos.
The helicopter touched down at midday just meters from sunbathers, with its rotor wash kicking up dense clouds of sand and dust that forced beachgoers to scatter. Witnesses alerted the Coast Guard, and Coast Guard officers and police rushed to the scene.
The Piraeus prosecutor ordered an immediate preliminary investigation, including statements on the helicopter's departure point and intended landing site.
The Austrian-registered aircraft had taken off from Keratea bound for Spetses, carrying two pilots — one Austrian, one German — along with a couple they were transporting to the island: a 39-year-old Greek man and his foreign partner.
The pilots, quickly identified by authorities, said they were forced to land on the beach because motorbikes parked at the island's helipad blocked their intended landing site. They were released on the prosecutor's order.
Police and Coast Guard officers on the beach then located the 39-year-old passenger as he was preparing to board a boat.
An off-duty police officer nearby spotted a bag close to where the group had been, which was found to contain 5 grams of hashish, half a gram of cocaine, and roughly 20 milliliters of inhalable cocaine solution.
The man was arrested on drug charges.
His foreign partner, who was also aboard the helicopter, is being sought for questioning.