ERT showed footage of the plane dropping water over a fire, then crashing into a hillside and bursting into flames
Well, that seems counterproductive.
It also seems strange to me that Canada has planes in other countries fighting fires while at the same time battling raging fires at home (I believe the amount of land burned in BC alone exceeds the area of some countries) and similarly calling in international aid to help fight fires.
(I don’t begrudge Greece any assistance -their fire situation also sucks - it just seems weird)
Forrest fire aid is a great example of global cooperation. Australia is in their winter currently and has sent a bunch of firefighters to Canada to help out, and when its winter in Canada and our fires have slowed down, we’ll do the same to help them. Also I don’t think that aircraft was run / operated by Canadians, just made by, Canadair is a maunufacturer.
Agreed, here. I think those planes were not part of the current firefighting contract and were oddly not available for us in Canada.
I don’t remember much, but I do remember the contract news a ways back and how it means these iconic planes would not be on the front line.
Canadair CL215 (aka “the scooper”) is the brand name and model of the aircraft. It was owned and operated by the Greek gov’t, not Canada.
edit to add link
Oh! The color scheme threw me . Thanks for correcting me - and being gentle about my rush to comment.
The colour scheme seems unchanged from the few planes operated by a company here, and unchanged from what I remember seeing as a boy every summer from our house that overlooked a common filling spot (lake) in happier times.
Again, thanks for the time and info.
All good.
The colour stays the same no matter what country the planes operate in because it’s for safety … easier to see that behemoth when it’s scooping water, flying in dense smoke or - unfortunately - in a crash site. Also because that plane can’t be used for any other purpose than scooping and dropping water on a fire.
They’re probably contract fire fighters. Canada could have hired them but Greece paid more.
