Dinopoulos
ΕΛ·EN

Archive · Reporting in Greece

Disasters & tragic events

Earthquakes, natural disasters and terrorist attacks in Greece — centred on the Aigio earthquake of June 1995.

Argyris Dinopoulos, as a free reporter, covered natural disasters in Greece, earthquakes, tragic events with mass loss of human life, and terrorist attacks.

He recorded, on 15 June 1995, in the Aigio earthquake, the anguished efforts of Charis Bogdanos to locate his son Andreas beneath the ruins of the apartment block that had collapsed.

The father found, late in the night, alone (literally climbing over the wreckage) the exact spot at which his son was trapped, and pointed it out to the rescue crews («My child is here!») so that the men of EMAK, the Greek disaster-response unit, could free him.

Argyris Dinopoulos was also present at an exchange between the heads of the rescue crews and Giorgos Papandreou — then member of parliament for Achaia, and Minister of Education — who with his then wife Ada had been in earthquake-struck Aigio from the first moment.

Charis Bogdanos had located the spot beneath which Andreas lay «buried», and the rescue crews had confirmed that the child «could be heard».

A disagreement arose, however, between EMAK and the head of a Swiss rescue crew (which had only just reached Aigio) over how the «corridor» would be opened to reach Andreas.

In the tension and the anguish of those moments, the head of the police force also asked Giorgos Papandreou for his opinion.

«Minister, should the Greeks or the Swiss take over the rescue operation?»

Giorgos Papandreou: «I think the Swiss»

Charis Bogdanos to Giorgos Papandreou: «Minister, let the Swiss get your child out; my child will be got out by the Greeks»

Argyris Dinopoulos went on to form a personal acquaintance with Charis Bogdanos, and the following year, in 1996, on the anniversary of the earthquake, he interviewed him and Andreas.

A man with a moustache in a pale blue striped shirt sits in the doorway of a white prefabricated unit; beside him, in the opening of the brown door, a boy, bare-chested, wearing a watch with a yellow face. Facing them a man in a white shirt and glasses holds a microphone with an Antenna flag; at the right edge of the frame a camera operator is visible.
Charis and Andreas Bogdanos a year after the earthquake at Aigio
A wider view of the same doorway. The man in the pale blue striped shirt sits at left; the boy stands in the door opening, wearing a T-shirt. At right a man in a white shirt holds the microphone and, at the edge, the camera operator with the camera on his shoulder. Behind them white corrugated sheeting and a louvred shutter.
Safe in their home a year later.
A man in a violet padded jacket crouches on a rocky slope, reaching towards an orange box with a white band on which «FLIGHT RECORDER — DO NOT OPEN» can be read. Around him extensive aircraft wreckage: a large white fuselage panel with a scorched area, twisted metal, insulation and a cylindrical strut. An overcast sky.
The black box of the Sudanese aircraft that came down on Hymettus (24-03-1992)

The reports