A seaplane crashed on Tuesday on the Greek island of Euboea, east of Athens, while fighting one of the forest fires that are raging in Greece. The images, which have already gone around the world, were recorded by a Greek public television team that was at the scene at the time.
The plane can be seen dumping water on some flames in a forest area in the south of the island and, seconds later, losing control and crashing into some trees. According to some local media, the seaplane lost stability when its right wing collided with a tree.
Local media report that two men were traveling on the aircraft, one of them only 26 years old.
The fire does not give truce to Greece. The wave of fires, which has spread to tourist islands such as Rhodes, Corfu and Euboea, is gaining strength due to extreme heat, with temperatures above 40 degrees, and which will persist until at least Thursday.
The situation is so delicate, with several outbreaks out of control and more than 32,500 residents and visitors evacuated so far, that the Hellenic government assured this Monday that it was “at war” against the flames. It is “a battle against the climate crisis,” declared Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
