By Taryn Pedler
A FIREFIGHTING plane has crashed after clipping its wing on a tree while battling a fire on the island of Evia near Athens.
Reports have stated that the incident took place over the town of Karystos, Greece.
A fire fighting plane has crashed in Greece[/caption]
Local media has reported that a helicopter has been sent to check the situation[/caption]
Thick black clouds of smoke were seen billowing into the air[/caption]
Local media have stated that a helicopter has flown to the crash site to check the situation.
Footage of the crash shows the yellow plane clipping its wing on a tree near a blaze as a flap falls off and drops down into the shrubbery below.
The firefighting plane then turns over mid-air and plunges into the ground as a huge blaze erupts from the site.
Black clouds of smoke billow into the air while another yellow plane flies overhead.
It comes as thousands of Brits have been flown back from fire-ravaged Rhodes – with many more facing their summer holidays being cancelled.
As many as 10,000 Britons were estimated to be on the island, a favourite tourist destination, the Foreign Office said.
Holidaymakers have been told to evacuate Agioi Theodoroi and parts of Evia, Greece’s second-largest island, after forest fires erupted in the areas.
Wildfires are also raging on the island of Corfu, off the west coast of Greece, and tourists have been warned of an “extreme fire risk” in Crete.
Some 20,000 people had to leave homes and hotels over the weekend as the inferno spread across Rhodes, after charring swathes of land and damaging buildings.
Meanwhile, several tourists got off a flight heading to Rhodes after the pilot warned them it was a “terrible idea” to travel there.
The plane was just about to take off from Gatwick when the easyJet captain urged the 37 British holidaymakers on board to think twice about their trip.
He said travelling to the island for a holiday was a “bad idea”, explaining return flights are being managed by the military.
Eight travellers, including a young boy in tears, took heed of his sobering words and disembarked the aircraft, BBC Wales reported.
Firefighters on the island are still battling the flames as thousands of people have been forced to evacuate burning hotels, with tourists scrambling to get home on evacuation flights.
The deputy mayor of Rhodes, Konstantinos Taraslias, said the fires are still burning out of control after seven days of fighting them.
Temperatures have risen above 40C in parts of Greece, with a new evacuation warning being issued for the village of Vati.
More than 16,000 people have been evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and several hotels.
Category: News, World News, Plane crashes and air disasters
