One of the two pilots on board died when a Greek fighter plane crashed over the Ionian Sea in the west of the country. The second pilot is still missing, the Department of Defense said. Rescue teams were able to salvage the body of a pilot from the floods several hours after the accident, as reported by the state broadcaster (ERT), citing the Coast Guard.

The pilots of another Greek plane saw the F-4 Phantom 2 plane crash, the report said. At the time of the accident, the pilots of the supported jet were practicing a low-level flight west of the coast of the Peloponnese peninsula. The hope of recovering the missing pilot alive is dwindling, experts said on the radio.

The accident is not associated with the tensions between Greece and Turkey from circles of the Ministry of Defense in Athens. The NATO countries have been fighting over sovereign rights in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean for decades.