british tourist killed

The helicopter pilot and two ground crew were detained and have appeared before a prosecutor with potential charges of negligence, the Times reported.

"We are doing everything to understand what went wrong and how this tragic accident occurred," the senior police official told the Times.

"We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Greece and are in contact with the local authorities," a spokesperson for Britain's Foreign Office told the Press Association news agency.

Fenton and his group had reportedly chartered two helicopters to fly to a private airport in Spata from the Greek island Mykonos. They were then planning to travel on a private jet back to the U.K.

Fenton reportedly disembarked the helicopter and walked behind it while its engines were still on. He was hit by the tail rotor, Britain's Independent newspaper said.

Fenton's parents were reportedly in a second helicopter, which had not yet landed at the time of the accident. The pilot of that helicopter, after being alerted by his colleagues on the ground, chose to divert to another airport so the parents would not have to witness the scene of the accident, the Independent reported.

Emergency services were called to the scene, but the victim is thought to have been killed almost instantly, the Independent reported.

Haley Ott is the CBS News Digital international reporter, based in the CBS News London bureau.

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British tourist killed by helicopter rotor blades in Greece; 3 arrested, including pilot

Jack fenton, 22, died after walking into spinning chopper blades at athens area helipad after returning from mykonos.

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A British tourist was killed by a helicopter rotor blades after landing in Greece, and now the pilot and two members of the ground crew are facing negligent homicide charges, according to reports. 

A group of British tourists returning from Mykonos landed at a private heliport in Spata and were supposed to get into cars to head to Athens International Airport, where they planned to board a private jet to return to the United Kingdom. But after the chopper landed, Jack Fenton, 22, from Kent, died after walking into a still spinning rotor blades on the Bell 407. 

Ioannis Kandyllis, president of Greece's committee for aviation accidents, said four passengers, including Fenton, disembarked from the chopper and were escorted back to a private lounge to await their flight back to London. But as they were in the lounge, the victim broke away and returned to the tarmac, "rushing to the helicopter at a fast pace," Kandyllis said, according to The Telegraph. 

"Witnesses we spoke to said he had a phone to his ear and was walking fast to the aircraft, defying ground crew shouting to him 'Stop, stop!’ Within seconds the tragic accident occurred. It was horrific," he said. 

HUNDREDS EVACUATED AS GREECE BATTLES FOUR MASSIVE WILDFIRES 

Emergency services at the scene of the incident involving a British man in his 20s who died when a rear helicopter blades hit him in Spata, near Athens. (John Liakos/Intime News/Athena Pictures/Shutterstock )

But friends who were traveling with Fenton, a junior account executive at a social media marketing firm, adamantly denied parts of Kandyllis’s story, including that Fenton was on the phone. 

"No instructions were given when exiting the helicopter and no one escorted us to the lounge. All they did was open the doors for us," Fenton’s friend, Jack Stanton-Gleaves, 20, told MailOnline. "We disembarked on our own and no one stopped Jack from going to the rear of the helicopter. None of us reached the lounge before the accident happened."

"I've heard people say Jack was on his phone and ran back to the helicopter and this is totally untrue," he added. "He was not on his phone and why he turned toward the rear of the helicopter I don't know."

Tape at the rear end of the Bell 407 helicopter Superior Air Helipad in Spata, near Athens, where a British man died when helicopter rotor blades hit him after landing. (Intime News/Athena Pictures/Shutterstock )

Fenton reportedly studied at Oxford Brookes University and previously attended the $43,200-a-year Sutton Valence School in Maidstone, Kent. His mother, Victoria, said her son had not been drinking. 

"He had got off safely when it landed in Athens but for some reason went back behind the helicopter, and it was the rear propeller which killed him. It was instant," she told The Daily Mail. "He'd been out the night before but hadn't had anything to drink all day yesterday except for water. He and his friends were all sober."

ANA, Greece’s state news agency, reported that the pilot and two ground crew members were detained for questioning. A spokesman for the Greek police told The Telegraph they were to face charges of negligent homicide and were transferred to Athens where they will face a court hearing. 

A helicopter takes off from Superior Air Helipad in Spata, near Athens, where a man died when helicopter blades hit him after landing. (Intime News/Athena Pictures/Shutterstock )

"How the accident happened is still under investigation. It was a very unfortunate incident. We hope that the British man’s family will stay strong," the police spokesman said. 

A judge will decide whether to release the three or remand them into custody. 

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"We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Greece and are in contact with the local authorities," a spokesman for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said. 

Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @danimwallace. 

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Shawn Tyson gets life sentence for murdering British tourists in Florida

A teenager who shot dead two British tourists on holiday in Florida will spend his life in prison after he was convicted of two counts of murder.

A jury in Sarasota took just two hours to decide that Shawn Tyson, 17, killed James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, after they strayed into a rundown area of the city after a night out last April.

Tyson, who bragged to friends about shooting the pair because they refused to give him money, received a mandatory life term with no possibility of parole from circuit court judge Rick De Furia.

He showed no emotion as the unanimous verdicts and sentence were read out. But he slumped into his chair as he watched emotional video tributes from the victims' families, and assistant state attorney Karen Fraivillig read a statement from Cooper's parents, Stanley and Sandra. "There are no words which can express the despair, disbelief and desolation we now have to live with," they said. "We will miss him every minute of every day in a home that now feels empty. We have lost the core, the heart, the life and the love of our lives."

In a joint statement released to the media with Kouzaris's parents Peter and Hazel, they branded Tyson evil and said they had been "given a life sentence of our own when our sons were so brutally and needlessly taken from us".

The victims' friend Joe Hallett spoke directly to Tyson after the verdict. "Every night you go to sleep, every morning you wake up, I want you to think of my friends who you murdered. Their images will be imprinted on your conscience until your very last breath in life," he said.

Cooper, a tennis coach from Hampton Lucy, near Warwick, and Kouzaris, a town planning graduate from Northampton, were on a three-week holiday with Mr and Mrs Cooper on the upmarket resort island of Longboat Key.

The pair, who met as students at the University of Sheffield, spent their last evening in several central Sarasota bars before they wandered drunkenly into the Newtown area in the early hours of 16 April. Both were shot several times and their bodies were found on either side of the street, shirtless and with their trousers "practically to their knees", prosecutor Ed Brodsky said.

Fraivillig called the victims "two vulnerable, drunk and lost young men in an unfamiliar city, in an unfamiliar country".

Former friends of Tyson, who was on bail for a separate gun crime at the time of the murders, gave damning testimony against him. One, Marvin Gaines, told the court that Tyson had asked him to dispose of a .22 calibre handgun, the same type used to shoot the victims, and several bullet casings. Detectives never recovered the murder weapon but Gaines led them to the incriminating bullet shells.

Another witness saw Tyson climbing into the window of his mother's house after the shooting while telephone records proved Tyson was making and receiving calls on his mobile at a time he claimed he was sleeping.

But perhaps the most damaging testimony in four days of evidence came from witnesses who said Tyson boasted of shooting the pair after they pleaded for their lives.

"The boys were crying, 'Please let me go home'," Brodsky said. "Instead, Shawn Tyson said, 'Since you ain't got no money, I got something for your ass,' and began shooting."

At first, detectives had a hard time getting witnesses to co-operate because of fear of retribution, but it was their bravery in coming forward, Brodsky said, that proved Tyson's guilt.

"The Sarasota police department followed every trail, and every trail led to only one person," he said.

Tyson, who denied two counts of pre-meditated first-degree murder, declined to take the stand. Public defender Carolyn Schlemmer attacked the integrity of the witnesses and claimed their evidence was tainted because some were offered deals to avoid prosecution and another was found new accommodation in exchange for testimony.

The victims' friends and families in the UK have set up a charity, Always a Chance, in their memory to tackle youth crime and violence.

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British tourist killed and more than 20 injured after coach crash in Peru

A British man has died and more than 20 other tourists injured after a coach crash in  Peru .

The holidaymakers, many of them foreigners, were travelling back from a popular destination called the Mountain of Seven Colours in the Peruvian Andes.

The vehicle came off the road and rolled before ending on its side.

A 32-year-old British national died and at least one other Briton - said to be a woman, 35 - was among those injured.

The British consulate has been informed.

The tragic incident took place near Tintinco in the district of Cusitapa at around 3pm local time on Sunday.

Cusco police chief Hanner Horna said: “We became aware of this terrible accident around 3pm on Sunday.

“We have been gathering information about who was involved in the accident and helping with transfers.

“Twenty-eight people were hurt and have been taken to hospital.

“The tourist who died was a British man. He was taken to a local morgue. We have informed the British Consulate and consular officials are now doing their work.”

Pictures from the scene of the crash showed the badly-damaged vehicle lying on its side with some of the injured being tended to on stretchers.

Some of the casualties are alleged to have suffered broken bones.

The driver, 37, is reportedly being questioned by police.

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Suspects plead guilty in savannah shooting that killed british tourist.

Police identified the deceased as 27-year-old Benjamin Tucker, a resident of London.

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Above file video: British tourist killed in Savannah shooting

A little over a year after a British tourist was killed and another man injured in a downtown Savannah shooting, both suspects have pleaded guilty for their roles in the crime.

On Monday, Georgiamae Lawrence pleaded guilty to malice murder and sentenced to life in prison with parole stemming from the April 24, 2022 shooting on West Bay Street, near River Street.

Savannah police identified the deceased as 27-year-old Benjamin Tucker, a resident of London, England.

Tucker was visiting family during a month-long stay in Savannah. Another man, Henry McDonough, was also shot but survived.

Corey Reynolds Kent, also charged in the shooting, pleaded guilty July 10 to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years.

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British tourist killed by crocodile while washing hands in Sri Lankan lagoon

Witnesses say they saw paul mcclean was 'waving his hands in the air' before he disappeared into the water, article bookmarked.

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A British journalist has been killed by a crocodile after washing his hands in a lagoon in Sri Lanka .

Paul McClean is thought to have been ambushed the the creature as he dipped his hands into some water.

The 24-year-old Financial Times journalist had reportedly left his friends to go to the bathroom near a beach at a surf spot called Elephant Rock, near Arugam Bay in Sri Lanka's southeast,

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Witnesses said they saw him "waving his hands in the air" before disappearing into the lagoon.

A Scottish tourist, currently in holiday in the area, told The Guardian : "There’s a lagoon right next to the sea he went to the toilet next to the lagoon and was grabbed by a crocodile.

“There are lots in the lagoon. People last saw his arms in the air in the water and then was grabbed under. I was there but didn’t see it happen though. Horrible.

“They are searching for a body but haven’t found anything yet ... They are 90 per cent sure it was a crocodile but a couple of the guys said there was quicksand in the lagoon.”

McClean grew up in Thames Ditton, Surrey. In 2015, he graduated Oxford University with a first class honours degree in French.

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He began working at the Financial Times in September 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. During his time with the newspaper, he spent a few months in Brussels, where he wrote about Brexit and the EU.

His latest article came out just three days ago and examined the champagne industry.

On his Twitter profile, McClean described himself as an Everton fan.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed they are "assisting the family of a British man who has died in Sri Lanka."

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Uk police arrest trio over deaths of 5 migrants, including a child, in the channel.

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British police said on Wednesday they had arrested three men over the deaths of five migrants including a child who  died  attempting to cross the Channel from France the day before.

The deaths occurred when a small overcrowded boat carrying 112 people set out to cross one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and panic took hold among the passengers not far from the shore.

Rescuers picked up about 50 people, with four taken to hospital, but others stayed on the boat, determined to get to Britain.

Three men, two Sudanese nationals aged 22 and 19, and a South Sudan national aged 22, were detained on Tuesday night on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

“This tragic incident once again demonstrates the threat to life posed by these crossings and bring into focus why it is so important to target the criminal gangs involved in organising them,” said NCA Deputy Director of investigations Craig Turner.

“We will do all we can with partners in the UK and France to secure evidence, identify those responsible for this event, and bring them to justice.”

French police are also continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident, alongside their British counterparts, the NCA said.

It added 55 people who were believed to have been on board the boat which arrived in Britain had also been identified.

More than 6,000 people have arrived in Britain this year via small, overloaded boats — usually flimsy inflatable dinghies — that risk being lashed by the waves as they try to reach British shores.

The deadly crossing on Tuesday took place just hours after the British parliament passed a bill paving the way for asylum seekers who arrive in Britain without permission to be deported to Rwanda, a policy which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak argues will deter people from making the dangerous cross-Channel journey.

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Greece conducts quake drill on tourist island of Crete

By By Stelios Misinas

CRETE, Greece (Reuters) – “Exercise, exercise, exercise”, read an emergency text message which alerted people on the island of Crete of a mock earthquake measuring 7.2 off the city of Heraklion.

Tourists rushed to evacuate the hotel, while workers in vests offered first aid to an injured woman in a tent as part of a quake drill dubbed “Minoas” after the mythical Cretan Bronze Age king.

“It’s good, because then we know what we are doing in real situations,” said British tourist Leah Pickles, 36, one of the hotel’s residents in Heraklion.

Greece is often rattled by earthquakes as it sits in multiple faults.

Since a strong quake killed 143 people near Athens in 1999, tremors have not caused severe fatalities or damage but the Mediterranean country has struggled with other emergencies such as wildfires and floods in recent years.

A wildfire on the island of Rhodes last summer consumed swathes of land and forced the evacuation of some 19,000 tourists and locals, weeks before Europe’s deadliest blaze killed at least 20 people and destroyed an area larger than New York in the Evros province in the north.

Separately on Tuesday, a wildfire near the city of Chania in western Crete forced authorities to evacuate part of a naval base and adjacent schools, hours before a real quake measuring 3.8 hit off the island’s southwestern coast.

A fire brigade official said later the blaze had abated.

(Reporting by Stelios Misinas; Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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