Greece wildfires: Two pilots die as firefighting plane crashes

Athens [Greece]: Two Greek air force pilots died after a plane crashed while battling forest fires on the island of Evia on Tuesday, reported Al Jazeera.

The accident occurred as Greece is battling against the wildfires on three major fronts, including the tourist islands of Rhodes and Corfu, and other blazes amid a heatwave across much of the Mediterranean region, killing dozens of people in Algeria. In a statement, the country’s air force said that their water-bombing plane, a Canadair CL-215, crashed at 2:52 pm (local time) during a firefighting operation in Platanistos on Tuesday.

After the incident, a search operation started in the area and determined that the plane’s captain, aged 34, and co-pilot, 27, were both dead, reported Al Jazeera.

“A three-day mourning period is declared in the Armed Forces for the loss of life, in the line of duty, of the Air Force officers and pilots of the firefighting aircraft CL-215, which was operating in Evia,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

According to Al Jazeera, scientists from the World Weather Attribution group said on Tuesday the continuing heatwaves would have been almost impossible without human-caused climate change.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that the Mediterranean nation is “at war” with the wildfires blazing across the country.

“For the next few weeks, we must be on constant alert. We are at war,” the prime minister told parliament, adding, “We will rebuild what we lost. We will compensate those who were hurt. … The climate crisis is already here. It will manifest itself everywhere in the Mediterranean with greater disasters.”

He also warned that the country faced “another three difficult days ahead” before high temperatures are forecast to ease, Al Jazeera reported.
Meanwhile, over 30 people, including 10 soldiers were killed in Algeria while battling the forest fires.

The reports of the deaths came on Monday as temperatures hit 48 degrees Celsius in parts of the North African country.

The Algerian interior ministry said it recorded 97 blazes, fanned by fierce winds and extreme heat, across 16 provinces, according to Al Jazeera.