Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has sent a Be-200 amphibious aircraft to assist Turkey in extinguishing fires. This was announced on Thursday, July 8, the press service of the military department reported.
"On the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation [Vladimir Putin], the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Army General Sergei Shoigu, sent a Be-200 amphibious aircraft from the naval aviation of the Russian Navy to assist the Turkish Republic in extinguishing fires. On the eighth of July, at about 16.00 [Moscow time], the plane took off from the Krymsk airfield and is currently flying to the Adana temporary base airfield (Turkey)," the report says.
The ministry noted that the crew of the aircraft has practical experience in performing fire extinguishing tasks, the maintenance of the aircraft at the temporary-based airfield will be provided by the engineering and technical staff of the Yeisk Aviation center.
On June 6, the Be-200 aircraft of the Ministry of Emergency Situations began work on extinguishing fires in the territory of Yakutia. Earlier, the prosecutor's office of the region opened four criminal cases on the fact of handling fire, which caused a fire against the background of the current fire-dangerous period.
The Be-200 is a multi-purpose amphibious aircraft designed to extinguish large forest fires from the air. The aircraft can take 12 tons of water on board.
