Water airplane Greece

[mwpeters]

Just heard on the radio that today an waterplane (type unknown, but probably I guess a CL415) crashed in sea while tanking water. Crash was near the Island of Kefalonia.

[Krazy]

Veteran pilot Colonel Stergios Kotoulas died when his fire-fighting aircraft crashed in the Ionian Sea close to the Greek island of Kefalonia on August 27 2009.

Fire-fighting aircraft from Greece, assisted by European Union countries, have flown numerous missions in recent days to battle wildfires.

Greek media said that the crash happened as the 55-year-old pilot was bringing his aircraft, a Polish-made PZL (M-18 Dromader) from a fire-fighting mission, while other reports said that Kotoulas was departing on a mission.

Some reports said that the aircraft had been engulfed by flames. The plane was not equipped with an ejector seat.

Kotoulas was reported to have had thousands of hours’ flying experience in a wide variety of aircraft.

Greek president Karolos Papoulias and Greek prime minister Costas Karamanlis issued statements expressing their sorrow and condolences on the death of the pilot.

"(Kotoulas) fell at the frontline doing his duty, battling the fire," Papoulias said.

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