Rescue crews had collected nine bodies and were continuing the search for the remaining eight people aboard the military Chinook helicopter carrying Patriarch Petros on pilgrimage to the Mount Athos community of Orthodox monasteries in northern Greece.

The helicopter crashed some 20 miles out to sea from Mount Athos around noon, due to unknown reasons. Military sources said there was practically nothing left from the helicopter and all aboard were assumed dead.

"We are devastated from this tragic accident where the Patriarch of Alexandria, venerable clerics, his staff, and the crew lost their lives," said Church of Greece leader Archbishop Christodoulos.

The Patriarchate of Alexandria, said to have been established in 42 AD by Saint Mark the Evangelist, is second in Orthodox Church honorific rank after the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople and capital of the Byzantine empire.

Alexandria's patriarch is considered to be Saint Mark's successor and heads the Orthodox Church in Africa, ministering to 100,000 Africans and 150,000 mainly ethnic Greeks.

"The Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa is one of the three oldest worldwide, along with that of Antioch [Syria] and Rome," said Father Costas Kyriakides, a theologian in Cyprus where Petros was born. "It has always been extremely important."

A government spokesman pledged a full investigation into the accident cause.

Source: Boston Globe

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