Since April 2, the Austrian Armed Forces as part of an assistance mission the local fire department in fighting forest fires in Styria. Until the “fire was out” on Friday, the army helicopters transported a total of 204,000 liters of extinguishing water to the area of operation, as Major General Gerfried Promberger, the commander of the Austrian Air Force confirmed on LinkedIn.
The forest fires had broken out in the villages of Großreifling and Hinterwildalpen, initially four helicopters from the Austrian Armed Forces were deployed: an Agusta Bell 212 transport helicopter in the village of Großreifling and two Agusta Bell 212s and an S-70 Black Hawk multi-purpose helicopter in Hinterwildalpen. https://militaeraktuell.at/bundeswehr-bekommt-neue-kommandostruktur/ The forest fire in Großreifling was quickly extinguished; two Agusta Bell 212 helicopters were then still in action in the Hinterwildalpen area: fire department teams were lowered down with cable winches to extinguish pockets of embers. The main challenge during this operation was the wind, which made it difficult to extinguish and approach the fire. After an Agusta Bell 212 helicopter was deployed on Thursday, the operation came to an end on Friday. A total of 56 flight hours were completed.
“The Austrian Armed Forces are always ready quickly when they are needed. Together with the civilian emergency services on the ground, our trained pilots help to fight the flames as quickly as possible. I wish our servicewomen and men every success in their mission,” said Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner. Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner at the start of the mission.
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