Greece wildfires: 2 dead after Canadair plane fighting blazes crashes
Global News
State broadcaster ERT showed footage of the plane dropping water over a fire and then crashing into a hillside and bursting into flames.
The captain and co-pilot of a plane fighting wildfires in Greece were both killed when their aircraft crashed on the island of Evia while it was trying to put out a blaze, the air force said
State broadcaster ERT showed footage of the plane dropping water over a fire and then crashing into a hillside and bursting into flames.
The Greek air force said there were two airmen aboard the Canadian-made amphibious Canadair CL-215 plane when it crashed over the island of Evia, east of Athens.
Two helicopters had rushed to the scene to carry out a search and rescue operation, the air force said. It gave no details on the fate of the airmen.
Hundreds of firefighters, helped by forces from Turkey and Slovakia, were battling blazes that have raged on the island of Rhodes since Wednesday and resurged in hot, windy conditions. More emergency flights were due to take home holidaymakers.
Mitsotakis said on Tuesday the next days would be difficult, with conditions possibly improving after Thursday.
“All of us are standing guard,” he said. “In the face of what the entire planet is facing, especially the Mediterranean which is a climate change hot-spot, there is no magical defense mechanism, if there was we would have implemented it.”
An assessment by scientists published on Tuesday said human-induced climate change has played an “absolutely overwhelming” role in the extreme heatwaves that have swept across North America, southern Europe and China this month.