A water bomber plane which was fighting forest fires crashed early Friday evening near Vila Nova de Foz Coa, in the north of Portugal, causing the death of the pilot, its sole occupant.
The aircraft was a mid-size, FireBoss-type aircraft. “It is with great dismay that I learned of the death of the pilot of the plane which crashed while fighting a fire”, reacted Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on his Twitter account.
In this country plagued for a week with scorching temperatures and a series of fires, the emergency services identified a dozen active fires on Friday evening, which mobilised more than 900 firefighters.
“At this stage, we have no details on what happened,” national civil protection commander André Fernandes told the media beforehand.
On Wednesday in Greece, two of the four members of the crew of a helicopter which took part in the fight against a forest fire on the island of Samos were killed when the aircraft crashed into the sea.
This post was published on 17 July 2022 11:21
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