On Aug. 14, 2021 a Beriev Be-200 amphibious firefighting aircraft crashed during wildfire extinguishing operations in Turkey.
On Aug. 14, 2021 a Beriev Be-200 amphibious firefighting aircraft crashed during wildfire extinguishing operations in Turkey.
Turkish and Russian personnel were among the fatalities of the accident.
None of the eight crew members on board the aircraft survived the crash.
According to Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu the Be-200 crashed in the Kahramanmaras region, in the southern central part of Turkey.
The firefighting aircraft had been deployed in response to a forest fire caused by a lightning strike, the Kahramanmaras regional governor said.
“Our teams were immediately dispatched to the scene,” the governor’s office says. “From initial information, it was determined that there were no survivors from among the crew.”
As reported by Flight Global, images from the scene indicate the aircraft was destroyed by fire with only the empennage remaining intact.
The Be-200 belonged to the Russian Navy and was sent to assist Turkey in combating forest fires in early July.
It departed the Krymsk airfield, near the Black Sea coast, to a temporary station in Adana on Jul. 8.
The basic configuration of the Be-200 amphibious aircraft is intended for fighting the forest fires using the fire extinguishant fluids. While doing this, the aircraft can fulfill the following tasks:
- stop and restrain the spread of the big forest fires by developing the protecting strip due to multiple drops on the fire edge;
- extinguishing the small fire and fire which only starts to develop;
- delivery of fire brigades and fire extinguishing equipment to the fire region by landing on preselected water area of airfield, and return to the base.
A particular feature of the Be-200 aircraft, when compared with the other amphibians, is that it has fully pressurized fuselage, which allows to fulfill a wide range of missions.
Photo credit: United Aircraft Corporation
