Weather of Arabia - A firefighting plane belonging to the Greek Air Force crashed while participating today, Tuesday, in putting out fires on the island of Evia, in southern Greece, killing two pilots.
The Greek Broadcasting Corporation published a video clip documenting the moment the "Canadair" amphibious plane, which was flying at a low altitude, crashed, before it disappeared in a valley on the Karistos Heights behind a cloud of flame and black smoke.
The Air Force said that two helicopters went to the scene to carry out a search and rescue operation, stressing that the expectations were not good for the pilots because the plane did not have an ejection system.
He explained that the pilot, Christos Molas, 34, and his co-pilot, Periklis Stefanidis, 27, died in the accident.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis canceled a visit to Cyprus on Wednesday, and called on the Greek armed forces to mourn for 3 days.
"They put their lives at risk to save lives," Mitsotakis said of the pilots.
Forest fires are sweeping large areas in Greece, and the most dangerous of them is in the western province of Attica, near the resort of Loutraki on the Gulf of Corinth and the islands of Rhodes and Corfu.
Video clips circulated on social media platforms documented scenes of thousands evacuating their homes and hotels in villages and areas adjacent to the fires, after losing control over them and burning more than 50,000 acres of forests.
A week ago, Greek Fire Service spokesman Vassilios Vathrakogiannis stated that Athens had asked for help in fighting the fires from the European Union's civil protection mechanism, which promised to send 4 planes to help put out the large fires ravaging Greece.
Poland responded to Greece's request immediately with 149 firefighters and 49 vehicles, Romania sent 40 firefighters and 5 vehicles, and Slovakia provided 31 firefighters and 15 vehicles.
Source: Agencies
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