The young men who were accompanying a 22-year-old British national when he was killed in a horrific private helicopter accident on a Greek island on Monday are livid about the story being spun by Greek authorities.
Jack Fenton died when he was struck by the rotor tail of one of two private helicopters the group had rented to return to the airport from Mykonos. They were supposed to fly home to London on Tuesday on a private jet rented by the father of one of his friends.
Authorities in Greece insist the group had been escorted inside the terminal and that the young man had his phone to his ear and did not hear warnings not to go near the spinning blade, which they say he was “approaching at a rapid pace.”
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Jack Stanton-Gleaves, who was in the same helicopter as Fenton, told the Daily Mail the Greeks’ version of events was not true, and that no one gave them any instructions about what to do once they exited the private helicopter.
“There were no instructions given when exiting the helicopter and no one escorted us into the lounge. All they did was open the doors for us,” he said. “We disembarked by ourselves and no one stopped Jack from going to the back of the helicopter.”
He said reports that his dead friend was on his phone are categorically false. “He wasn’t on his phone and why he turned to the back of the helicopter I don’t know,” he said.
Fenton’s sister, Daisy, said her brother would have never done anything risky. “This was Jack’s first ever helicopter ride,” she told the Daily Mail. “So you can imagine how cautious and wary, if anything, he was.” She also said he was not the type to flout rules. “All the rest, of him running back on the tarmac and violating protocols, is rubbish.”
She conceded that no one may ever know why he was returning to the helicopter, but said it was not to take a selfie. “No one knows exactly what led him back. Perhaps he forgot something. But the line that he went back to take a selfie is rubbish. It’s a lie.”
Greek authorities have opened an investigation into the accident.
