A firefighting plane battling a wildfire in Greece crashed on the island Evia, not only starting another fire, but tragically killing both pilots. The crash was caught on video, as shown below. From the Red Cross:
The water-bombing plane crashed while battling a forest fire near Platanistos, the defence ministry said.
The pilots were named as 34-year-old Cdr Christos Moulas and his co-pilot, 27-year-old Pericles Stefanidis.
An intense European heatwave has also sparked wildfires across Sicily, Algeria and Tunisia.
Greek TV showed the Canadair aircraft flying low to drop water on a fire before turning sharply into a hillside and bursting into flames.
The plane was among at least three other aircraft and about 100 firefighters tackling fires on Evia.
The fire is just one of about 82 blazes in Greece alone, with other fires in Algeria and even the Swiss Alps. In Italy, a red alert has been placed on all major cities as well as the island of Sardinia, which recently reached 116 degrees. The Red Cross expects the heatwaves to continue into next week.
Front page thumbnail image: Alexandros Michailidis / shutterstock.com
