Four Canadair firefighting aircraft from France and Italy are deployed to Greece

Four Canadair firefighting aircraft from France and Italy are expected to arrive in Greece to assist in extinguishing the fires.

Aircraft will arrive at the request of civil defense to the commissioner EU for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic.

“In response to Greece’s request for help fighting forest fires in the Attica region, we are mobilizing 2 Canadair aircraft from the EU civil defense pool in France and 2 Canadair aircraft from our rescEU fleet in Italy, expected to arrive today.” European firefighters from Romania are already helping,” Lenarcic wrote on social networks.

Following 🇬🇷 request for assistance to tackle #wildfires in the #Attica region, we are mobilising 2 Canadairs from the EU Civil Protection Pool in 🇨🇵 and 2 Canadairs from our #rescEU fleet in 🇮🇹, expected to arrive still today.

The 🇪🇺-prepositioned 🇷🇴👨‍🚒 are already assisting. https://t.co/qTMRhQDbzI

— Janez Lenarčič (@JanezLenarcic) July 18, 2023

Production of Canadair’s CL-215 and CL-415 firefighting aircraft was discontinued several years ago, making it difficult for aircraft users to obtain spare parts. In 2022, the Greek government purchased, as an alternative, 15 firefighting aircraft of the model Air Tractors.

The purchase was widely advertised by the pro-government media, and the prime minister personally met the planes and even took a picture on top of one of them, but the very first use of this model showed its failure as a firefighting aircraft.

“We have done a very honest x-ray of our weak points, have dramatically and significantly changed the fire prevention mechanism in the field and in the area of ​​cooperation between the fire and forest services, and in the speed with which we bought more air assets, and in the communications issues that are also important when you manage such natural disasters. We still have a difficult summer ahead of us, but I have a clear conscience that we have done everything possible to protect the country.”

The reaction to such a high-flown speech on the part of the opposition was a tough analysis of the characteristics of the aircraft, where the most characteristic was the phrase: “It can’t even put out the grill.”

“The problem is that planes are not suitable for fighting fires, since they were more likely to … spray fertilizer,” the publication says. Pronews– Since, according to the technical specifications, this model carries much less water than the CL-415 (half), and even more so than such aircraft as the BE-200 or Il-76.

More specifically: Air Tractors carry just 3 tons of water, while the CL-415 can carry more than six, the Be-200 (the Russian “beast” that fought fires in 2020) 12 tons, and the Il-76 more than 48 tons! Even the “ancient” PZL can carry 2.2 tons of water or flame retardant foam!

Therefore, the government, instead of looking for real firefighting aircraft, found it right to look for solutions in an aircraft that practically cannot put out even … a grill.

In addition, the aircraft cannot take on water in large waves (in strong winds), unlike the CL-415 or Be-200, which significantly limits its operational flexibility. Since he will have to look for the nearest airport, and this is in the presence of infrastructure for refueling with water or extinguishing agent.

Well, besides, the AT 802 is a rather slow aircraft with a maximum speed of 350 km per hour, compared to the Be-200’s 710 km per hour,” the author mocked.

And despite this, the plane is quite “advertised” by the pro-government media, which report: “Because of their ability to fly for many hours, air tractors are used by the fire department in aerial patrols to monitor and directly extinguish fires.” This probably means that other planes, supposedly, cannot put out fires immediately?

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