A former Greek defence minister has encouraged the Greek government to request assistance from Russia in putting out destructive wildfires.
According to Panos Kamennos, it would be difficult to contain the wildfires raging on the islands of Corfu and Rhodes without the Russian Be-200 amphibious aircraft.
Nothing occurs without Beriev, the man said. Let’s bowed our heads and request assistance. They’ll give it to us.
The enormous Russian aircraft Beriev turned out to be a valuable tool in putting out fires during the Greek fire season.
The Beriev Aircraft Company developed and produced the utility amphibious Beriev Be-200 Altair.
Due to the deadly flames that have been raging in Greece for the past week, thousands of visitors have had to leave the country.
A handful of repatriation planes have returned up to 10,000 British tourists who were impacted to the UK.
With a capacity of 12,000 litres (3,200 US gal) of water or up to 72 passengers, it is advertised as being built for firefighting, search and rescue, maritime patrol, freight and passenger transportation.
Eight ferric aluminium alloy water tanks, which are situated under the cabin floor in the central fuselage part of the Be-200 in its amphibious water drop fire-fighter version, are used to drop water to put out fires.
Four retractable water scoops, two ahead and two aft of the fuselage step, can scoop a combined 12 tonnes (26,000 lb) of water in 14 seconds.
As an alternative, a ground-level water cistern or hydrant can be used to fill the tanks.
The water tanks may be easily removed to transport cargo. Water can be poured in up to eight consecutive drops or in one salvo.
Six additional fire-retarding chemical agent auxiliary tanks with a combined capacity of 1.2 m3 (320 US gal) are also carried by the aircraft.
When flying at a speed greater than the minimum drop speed of 220 km/h (140 mph; 120 km), the aircraft may dump its water tanks over a fire in 0.8 to 1.0 seconds.
Additionally, two Be-200ES were utilised in Greece, with RF-32768 battling the season-long 2007 forest fires and RF-21512 operating from August 30 to September 13, 2007.
Greece utilised one aircraft during the summer of 2021