Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited on Wednesday morning the Elefsina Air Base where firefighting aircraft of the 383 Special Operations and Aerial Fire Fighting Squadron and the 355 Tactical Transport Squadron are based.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, accompanied by General Dimitrios Houpis, General Dimitrios Houpis, General Dimitrios Houpis, and General Dimitrios Houpis, General Dimitrios Grigoriadis, was informed about the missions of the Canadair CL-215 and CL-415 firefighting aircraft that contribute to the demanding task of extinguishing the fires, while he also visited the Maintenance Squadron of Aircraft, where he spoke with the technicians who maintain the aircraft throughout the 24 hours to effectively respond to their missions.

The Prime Ministers also spoke with the American pilots of the Erickson helicopters used in aerial firefighting operations, as well as the Italian pilots of the Canadair firefighting aircraft and the French pilots of the Super Puma helicopter who have come to Greece through the European Civil Protection Mechanism (rescEU) to help in dealing with forest fires.

“I want to say a very big “thank you”. I know how difficult it is for what you do, I would say especially for the CL-215 operators, I have a full sense of what it means to fly airplanes that are quite stressed. And of course I also know how much work is done by the support technicians to keep the aircraft in the air.

We for our part have done everything we can to bring the new Canadair 515 as early as possible. We have signed the relevant contract. We took the lead in having a large order from Europe, so that the production line could be moved forward. Because everyone who complains that we don’t have them sooner, they simply didn’t know that these planes are not in production, and there has to be a big order to get them in front.

We know, however, that for the next few years – certainly for the next three years -, we should be content with what we have. And I want you to know how much the whole society appreciates what you are doing in extremely difficult and adverse circumstances.

I’ve said it many times, we’re always trying to get better. We don’t expect the solution to just come out of thin air. Very important work needs to be done in the area of ​​prevention. I think we have laid some important first foundations in this direction.

Let’s realize that this is a total effort in an era major climate crisis which I think we all experience. We must constantly become better. And from any failure of ours or from any fire that escapes, always look to learn what we can do better.

Of course, what I do not want under any circumstances is in the context of a political confrontation to discredit all the work of the state apparatus.

The pilots themselves, the firefighters themselves, the volunteers themselves have done this work. So, we also learn our lessons from every fire that escapes, especially, I would say, for the very difficult zones in which you practically can’t venture, which concern the contact of the forest with the urban fabric”, said the Prime Minister in conversation with firefighting aircraft pilots.