Two Greek Air Force pilots died in the crash of a firefighting plane that was helping to extinguish a forest fire on the island of Evia. According to the Greek Air Force, their plane, a Canadair CL-215, crashed into a hill early afternoon on Tuesday and caught fire. The bodies of the plane’s captain, who was 34, and his co-pilot, who was 27, were found in a rescue operation. The Greek armed forces have declared three days of mourning.
The country continues to be involved in managing the emergency linked to the serious fires which over the weekend led to the evacuation of over 19,000 people from the island of Rhodes, in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey, a very popular tourist destination in this period. Three days ago, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was aware that the old Canadair CL-215s used by Greece to respond to fires – increasingly frequent in the summer months – are “old, difficult to fly and subject to malfunctions”.