Firefighting plane crashes on Greek Island of Evia

[rjfp1962]

Greece's defence ministry has confirmed two Greek air force pilots died when their Canadair plane crashed while fighting fires on the island of Evia.
The pilots were identified as a 34-year-old commander and his 27-year-old co-pilot. (BBC News)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F39EgDtQR1c (Euronews Video) Shows moment of the crash.

[Eric Mc]

I was waiting for something like this to happen. It’s such a dangerous form of flying.

[rjfp1962]

The Greek defence ministry has declared a three-day period of mourning in the armed forces for the pilots who lost their lives fighting fires over Evia.
They have been named as 34-year-old Commander Christos Moulas and his co-pilot, 27-year-old Pericles Stefanidis. (BBC News)

Even sadder when those lost pilots are so young...! R.I.P.

[glazbagun]

Eric Mc said:

I was waiting for something like this to happen. It’s such a dangerous form of flying.

I remember it happening in Canada a few years back. Is it due to the divebombing and changing mass of the plane or is it the smoke which makes it so dangerous for aircraft?

[coanda]

In this instance the aircraft hit a tree with its right wing and did not have room to recover or had lost adequate control to recover - to be determined.

[mr pg]

Looks like the RH float was knocked of the wingtip, plus possible flight control surface damage.

[eliot]

youtuber/aviator blancolirio will no doubt have a video up on it shortly - he’s covered a few firefighting plane crashes unfortunately.

[GliderRider]

mr pg said:

Looks like the RH float was knocked of the wingtip, plus possible flight control surface damage.

My thoughts exactly. Maybe it jammed the aileron linkage, as there appears to be no (successful) attempt to roll to the left back to level flight.

[gotoPzero]

The Italian Air Force had a very similar incident in the same type about this time last year.

[craig1912]

eliot said:

youtuber/aviator blancolirio will no doubt have a video up on it shortly - he’s covered a few firefighting plane crashes unfortunately.

It’s been available for last few hours

[Eric Mc]

Definitely clipped a tree although I think the tight turn to the right at that low speed might have caused the right wing to stall.

[gotoPzero]

I doubt the roll to the right was intentional.

[Eric Mc]

The initial bank to the right would have been intentional but a combination of clipping the tree and an induced stall on the inside (right) wing is what would have brought them down. Once the right wing stalled, there was nothing they could do at that low height.

[Pan Pan Pan]

coanda said:

In this instance the aircraft hit a tree with its right wing and did not have room to recover or had lost adequate control to recover - to be determined.

It was not the wing, it was the starboard float which impacted the tree and was ripped off.
Given that the wing tip structure had to be strong enough to withstand the forces placed on it during a water landing, the more likely cause was damage to the starboard aileron caused by the detached float striking it on its way off the aircraft.