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This is still a novelty in Germany: fire-fighting planes from Italy are fighting the forest fires in the Harz Mountains.
Christoph Seidler, DER SPIEGEL
»Here behind me at Braunschweig Airport, one of two Italian fire-fighting planes is being refueled, which will shortly take off from here to fly to the forest fire area on the Brocken in the Harz Mountains.
There are a total of two Italian aircraft here that Germany has requested through an EU civil protection mechanism and it is actually the first time that these aircraft are deployed here in Germany.”
The Canadair-415 aircraft take on water from Lake Concordia in Saxony-Anhalt.
On the underside of the plane are built-in nozzles - about the size of a gutter in diameter - through which two tanks inside the plane are then filled.
Martino Franchini, Pilot
“It's a very fast manoeuvre.
As soon as you touch the water, you increase the thrust.
Otherwise the plane would hit the water – but with the right training, the maneuver is very easy.”
It only takes about ten to twelve seconds to get the 6000 liters on board.
However, the water can be discharged much faster: the water can be drained off in just one to two seconds via four locks on the underside of the aircraft.
In this way, the plane makes a drop every 20 minutes.
Martino Franchini, Pilot
»The normal duration of an operation is about three hours.
It's the same in Italy.
With this fire in Germany, we can fly seven to eight drops per mission."
During a mission, such an aircraft consumes around 3,000 liters of fuel.
The EU Commission covers around three quarters of the costs of the missions.
They add up to 3,000 euros per flight hour and several thousand euros in fixed costs.
