Posted on 09/05/2026 7:30:00 PM PDT by Libloather
A Hellenic Air Force F-4 Phantom plunged into the ground during an Athens Flying Week airshow Saturday — erupting into a massive fireball as horrified spectators watched, chilling video shows.
Both pilots aboard the American-made, two-seat fighter were killed in the crash, according to two officials who spoke to Reuters.
The shocking crash unfolded about two minutes into the jet’s display at Tanagra Air Base near Athens at around 3 p.m. local time, according to The Aviationist.
Footage shows the F-4 roaring along at low altitude before banking into a turn and rapidly losing height.
Seconds later, the fighter disappears behind trees and slams into the ground — sending a towering plume of flames and black smoke into the sky.
The footage does not appear to show either of the two aircrew members ejecting from the doomed aircraft.
The jet was flying just meters above the ground when it lost altitude while making a right turn and crashed about two kilometers from the airfield, Reuters reported.
Just one day earlier, the crew had successfully completed a rehearsal flight in the two-seat fighter.
The F-4 Phantom is one of the most iconic fighter jets of the jet age. First flown in 1958 and introduced by the US Navy in the 1960s, the twin-engine fighter became a workhorse of the Vietnam War and was later used by air forces around the world, including Greece, which first received the aircraft in the 1970s.
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I grew up near Selfridge ANG Base in Michigan. Frequent F-4’s flying overhead was part of my early childhood.
My husband’s father worked for McDonnell as a foreman in St. Louis. He told me that before Boeing bought McDonnell it was very family oriented with many picnics and open day events. He says that when he was a young boy, McDonnell had an a christening event for the F-4 on the tarmac outside the by where they were built. The families were invited. Some woman had a bottle of champagne and struck it on the nose like a ship. It just bounced off and everyone laughed. They had to open the bottle and she just poured the champagne on the nose. He still remembers it.
The F4 was built to go really really fast. It doesn’t like going slow. Landing the thing is said to be great fun.
Prayers for the Greek families and squadron.
Jeanne is a commie.
That’s why.
I hope it lasts that long.
Did the Greek-maintained F-4’s ejection seats fail, or did it even have them?
In the 1970s I was stationed at RAF Lakenheath where we had F-4Ds and one crashed into the North Sea, but the pilots ejected safely. The pilots sent around a couple of cases of beer to the egress shop.
— Phormer Phantom Phixer
The article said no attempt at ejection. The odds of both failing is close to zero and they must have had them - unless they were sitting on wood crates.
When things go bad at very low altitude, there are often just a few seconds to figure out what is happening and how to respond. I know of several cases where the WSO got out but the 0.8 second delay (going from memory and my last flight was 1989) meant the pilot died. I was a WSO. Never needed to eject, thankfully!
Ones a pilot, the second is the weapons officer.
Thank you for your WSO service! I worked aircraft instrumentation.
Re the article said there was no attempt to eject. How would they know? I guess the seats didn’t fire and come out but did they pull the handles? We’ll probably never know.
And please remind me: I believe if the pilot pulled the handle, the WSO went as well, in fact, first as you said. But if the WSO pulled the handle first, did the pilot also go, after the 0.8 sec. delay? I think not but please correct me if I’m wrong.
See the F 104.
“ut if the WSO pulled the handle first, did the pilot also go, after the 0.8 sec. delay?”
That was an option. There was a handle in the rear cockpit. Depending on where it was turned, either the pilot would follow the WSO out automatically or would stay in the jet. In my 4 years in F-4s, every pilot planned on automatically following me out. If it was an incentive ride for a mechanic, they would usually opt to stay in the jet.
Why? On one occasion, we were giving an incentive flight and the guy getting the ride pulled the ejection handle - while still on the ground! The canopies were open and that automatically ended the ejection sequence.
When asked why he did it, the guy replied, “I wanted to see what would happen”!
“Aerodynamics”. Damn adipose phalanges.
CC
Yea verily on all points.
Might argue about the aircraft liking/disliking anything but when the airfoils stop producing more lift than the force of gravity those finer points don't mean much at all. (I've seen 'way too many failed attempts to afterburner a way out of a poor Final Approach to bother with that subject as well.)
Punch line about this mishap is (JMHO) the OPERATIONAL speeds of military A/C have been increasing to the point that Flight Demonstration Teams (Blue Angels etc) are forced to chose,especially at low altitudes, between safety and simply going too fast for the spectators to really see anything they're doing.
I'm ex Naval Air, absolutely adore "My" Blue Angels but freely admit that I've been watching them with every Old Engineer bone in my body yelling "FIRE" ever since the "Blues first got into (oddly) the F-4's.
Enough of the sermon.
JMHO it will be found that this particular crash was caused by pilot error: maybe half-a-click low on power setting/too much and too fast on a maneuver.
Rest in Peace, brothers.
Way too many F-4 Navy and Marine aviators killed during carrier ops.
Every cruise I was on in the mid to late 70s meant at least one class alpha F-4 mishap.
Brave guys all. Salute.
Same, except Moody AFB, GA.
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