The wildfires which have ravaged many areas of Greece during the recent heatwaves burned an estimated 470,000 stremmata of forest in the month of July alone, out of a total of 550,000 stremmata since the beginning of the year, but have thankfully claimed only 5 human lives to date. The evacuation of 20,000 people from fire-threatened areas in south-east Rhodes was achieved without major incident – though some homecoming British tourists claimed that much of this was down to local residents, who provided free food and water and guided them to assembly points, rather than to the efforts of officialdom. There were further successful evacuations on the island of Corfu.

Crash of a Canadair firefighting aircraft
However, the nation was plunged into mourning by the death of two pilots of the Greek Air Force whose Canadair CL-215 water bomber crashed on Tuesday 25^th July while attempting to extinguish a fire near Karystos on southern Evia. The event was caught on camera by ERT News, who showed the plane flying low over the fire and banking while releasing its load of water, then apparently hitting the top of a pine tree as it pulled away. The impact detached the starboard wing float, damaging a control surface, and the aircraft then banked sharply and disappeared into a ravine, bursting into flames as it hit the ground. It was some time before rescue crews were able to reach the scene, because of the nature of the terrain and the danger of explosions from fuel.

The two airmen were the pilot, 34-year-old Christos Moulas from Gavalohori in Apokoronas, and co-pilot Periklis Stefanidis, 27, from Kilkis near Thessaloniki. A three-day period of mourning was announced and the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis postponed a trip to Cyprus, commenting: “They offered their lives to save lives… They proved how hazardous their daily missions in extinguishing fires are … In their memory, we continue the war against the destructive forces of nature.”

The incident aroused widespread comment and expressions of sympathy from abroad. President Macron of France, a country which has similar problems with wildfires in the summer months and makes regular use of the Canadair firefighting aircraft, tweeted “Our support goes to the heroes who, in Greece, France and everywhere else, risk their lives every summer to fight the fires.”

Funerals of the two pilots
The funeral of the co-pilot Second Lieutenant Periklis Stefanidis took place in his hometown of Kilkis on Thursday 27th July. Ιt was attended by the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Defence Minister Nikos Dendias, and there was an honorary detachment of the Hellenic Air Force.

Flight Lieutenant Christos Moulas was buried at Gavalohori the following day, the funeral being attended by the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, accompanied by the Chief of General Staff General Konstantinos Floros, as well as many other representatives of the armed forces and local government. In his address the mayor of Apokoronas Haralambos Koukianakis said: “The whole of Greece mourns these young men who selflessly served our homeland, trying to save human lives, houses and whole areas and and so unjustly lost their lives. Our gratitude is great and our thanks too little expressed.”

It was reported that the Apokoronas Municipal Council had decided to name a street and a square in Gavalohori after the two airmen. Flight Lieutenant Moulas’ wife being three months pregnant, the President of the Hellenic Parliament Kostas Tasoulas announced that, as is the custom in such circumstances for members of the armed and security forces who die in the course of duty, the child would be adopted by Parliament and receive an annual sum of money until the age of 25.

The dangers of aerial firefighting
The incident serves to underline the hazardous nature of aerial firefighting, particularly using the Canadair water bombers which, unlike the helicopters used for the same purpose, have to fly very close to the ground in order to accurately place their load of water for maximum effect. Travelling at high speed and with limited manoeuvrability they have to contend with uneven terrain, high temperatures, wind forces exacerbated by updraughts from the fires, smoke and glare from the sun. The crew of a second Canadair which was operating at the same site suggested that the crashed aircraft hit the tree because it had been masked by smoke on its approach.

As a result, there have been fairly regular accidents from the use of firefighting aircraft, both in Greece and elsewhere. According to a report in Ta Nea, since 1977 there have been 5 fatal and 5 non-fatal crashes with Greek Canadair CL-215s, including last week’s crash. The planes are between 25 and 45 years old and although old age is not necessarily a problem if the aircraft are properly maintained, they are clearly less manoeuvrable than more modern versions, with only manual controls available to the pilot.

History of the Canadair
Introduced in 1966, the CL-215 was the first aircraft designed specially to be a water bomber. The original manufacturer, Canadair Ltd, delivered 125 aircraft before production ceased in 1990. The Canadair CL-415, an updated version with turboprop engines, was introduced in 1994, by which time the the company had been acquired by Bombardier Inc, with production continuing until 2015 and 95 aircraft produced. Before last week’s crash, Greece had 11 of the older CL-215s and 7 CL-415s in operation for firefighting.

Following another change of company ownership, work began on a further updated model, the CL-515. With more recent avionics and instrumentation to allow it to continue fighting fires at night, it is now ready to go into production with De Havilland Canada as the DHC-515. Commenting on Greece’s outdated fleet of water bombers on ANT1 News on Monday 31^st July, aircraft designer Faidon Karaiosfidis said that upgrading to the DHC-515 was urgently needed, but the aircraft was not yet being manufactured as there were insufficient orders to start a production line. What was needed, he said, was a combined EU effort which could produce orders for some 50 planes, allowing production to go ahead.