\n<\/p>\n
When a fighter is going down, the official choice is clear: eject. Across decades of Hellenic Air Force history, a handful of pilots made a different one. Facing loss of control, they remained in the cockpit and tried to steer burning or dying aircraft away from towns, villages, and critical infrastructure \u2014 and paid with their lives.<\/p>\n
That unwritten code \u2014 civilian lives first \u2014 is the thread running through the cases below, as told in To Vima\u2019s international edition.<\/p>\n
Konstantinos Iliakis (1980) \u2014 Souda<\/strong> (Note: public records more commonly associate the name Konstantinos \u201cKostas\u201d Iliakis with the 23 May 2006 mid-air collision of an F-16 over the Aegean near Karpathos, not a 1980 F-104 accident at Souda. The account here follows the To Vima piece as published.)<\/em><\/p>\n Dimitrios Stratakias (1990) \u2014 Zouzouli<\/strong> Konstantinos Karathanos (1994) \u2014 Koulouri<\/strong> Konstantinos Alexandrakis and Polykarpos Mouchtouris (2000) \u2014 Antikyra<\/strong> Epameinondas Kosteas (2023) \u2014 Kalamata<\/strong> These men are remembered in Hellenic Air Force memorials not only as casualties of training and mechanical failure, but as airmen who treated the ground below as part of the mission. The ejection seat is a last chance to live. In these cases, they treated it as a last chance they would not take if it meant the aircraft would fall on someone else.<\/p>\n
Lieutenant Junior Grade Konstantinos Iliakis was on landing approach in an F-104 Starfighter when the jet suffered a serious malfunction. The flight path pointed toward populated Souda, on Crete. He did not eject. He held the aircraft until he believed it would come down in an uninhabited area, and died in the impact.<\/p>\n
In May 1990, Squadron Leader Dimitrios Stratakias was flying an F-5 when the aircraft lost power over Zouzouli, a village in the Kastoria region. He had the right to abandon the jet. He stayed, used what power remained to change course, and crashed just outside the village. Residents survived; he did not.<\/p>\n
In November 1994, Squadron Leader Konstantinos Karathanos was on a training flight in an A-7 Corsair when a mechanical failure developed over the Larissa area. He fought to keep the aircraft off the village of Koulouri. Witnesses later described it passing low over rooftops before it went down in a nearby field. He remained at the controls until the end.<\/p>\n
On 18 May 2000, an F-4 Phantom flown by Lieutenants Junior Grade Konstantinos Alexandrakis and Polykarpos Mouchtouris went down during a low-altitude flight near Antikyra in Boeotia. Altitude and time were almost gone. They tried to keep the aircraft flying rather than eject. The crash was reported about 200 meters from NATO fuel depots; a hit on those facilities, the original account notes, could have been catastrophic for the wider area. Both pilots were killed. Contemporary reporting also recorded that the aircraft struck a house and that two young women died on the ground \u2014 a reminder that even a last-second attempt to spare a settlement is not always enough.<\/p>\n
On 27 December 2023, Wing Commander Epameinondas Kosteas, 40, was flying a T-2 Buckeye trainer near Kalamata \u2014 described as his last flight in the type before a transfer \u2014 when the aircraft suffered a failure. He was close to populated ground. He did not eject and tried to keep the jet clear of people. He died in the crash about half a nautical mile northwest of the airfield. Official statements confirmed the fatality; colleagues later said he likely never had time to use the ejection seat.<\/p>\n