A British couple on their honeymoon and a pilot were killed in a helicopter crash on the Greek island of Sifnos.

Police said that Alexander Cromie and Marie Ebert were flying to the Aegean island when their helicopter crashed and burst into flames in the Tholos area on Monday evening.

A senior police official in Athens said that the crash occurred just minutes before the helicopter was scheduled to land at 6.15pm.

CCTV footage showed the aircraft spinning out of control before plummeting to the ground and igniting a fireball. A thick plume of dark smoke was seen billowing into the sky from the site of the crash.

Asset management firm Blackstone, where Mr Cromie worked as a vice president in private wealth, said it was “shocked” by the couple’s death.

“We are shocked by the tragic passing of three people, including our colleague Alex Cromie and his wife Marie Ebert, who were celebrating their honeymoon,” they said.

“Alex was beloved by everyone who knew and worked with him at Blackstone, and our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones.”

The pilot of the vehicle was named locally as Giorgos Raikos.

The Independent has reached out to Greek police and the Foreign Office for comment.

The deputy mayor of Sifnos, Manolis Fountoulakis, told local media there was little left of the aircraft after the crash.

He said: “It experienced mechanical failure in the air; residents say it made a loud, strange noise, like military aircraft.”

A Foreign Office spokesperson told the Times: “We are in contact with the local authorities and are urgently seeking further information. Our staff stand ready to provide consular support to those affected.”

Sifnos has a permanent population of around 2,600 people, but has become a popular island to visit for tourists in recent years.

Earlier this month, a Briton survived and two others were killed after two firefighting helicopters collided while battling vast blazes tearing through an area west of Athens.

A Greek and a Danish national on one helicopter were killed after a second helicopter with a Briton and a Greek on board collided with its rotors. Both people on the second helicopter survived.

Footage of the collision shows two helicopters crossing paths at low altitude, before the main rotor of the lower helicopter strikes the underside of the other, causing it to crash down in flames. The second helicopter was able to fly away and carry out an emergency landing.

Both the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and president Konstantinos Tasoulas paid tribute to the firefighters killed as they were battling a wildfire that has destroyed more than 100 homes around Psatha, Attica, northwest of Athens.

Europe has been ravaged by wildfires this summer after a period of record-breaking heatwaves and little rain – conditions that scientists say have been exacerbated by climate change.

Destructive blazes in France and Spain have shown some signs of easing, but several wildfires have broken out in Greece after a period of relative calm there.