The Spanish Air Force is preparing to send two firefighting planes from Malaga. They are due to land at Madeira Airport this Thursday.
Each Canadair aircraft has the capacity to collect approximately 6,000 litres of water in the space of 12 seconds. This is six times greater than the response of the helicopter currently operating in Madeira.
Two Canadair aircraft from the Spanish Air Force are scheduled to arrive to help fight the fires in Madeira. The flights are scheduled for this Thursday, both from the city of Malaga.
The first Canadair is due to land at 11:00 am at Madeira Airport, and the second aircraft will arrive shortly after, at 1:00 pm.
According to several spotters at Madeira Airport, the aircraft come from Andalusia and both belong to the Spanish Air Force fleet, being exactly the same (CL-415). “They are two exactly the same aircraft, Canadair, which is a Canadian company, and they are both CL-415s”, says Alexandre Camacho, a member of the Madeira Airport Spotting team.
“We found this information on flight tracking applications, such as Flight Radar and Radar Box, and for now it is scheduled. Regarding the planes, they are two amphibious aircraft, which can land either at sea or on land. First they will have to come to the airport and, most likely, they will have to carry out reconnaissance. We just don’t know where they will refuel,” he explained.
According to the young Madeiran, the flights are only scheduled, and it is not certain whether they will actually take place, but everything indicates that they will land in Santa Cruz.
As DIÁRIO was able to find out, the arrival of the two Canadairs has indeed been confirmed according to internal and operational data from Madeira Airport – since the place where they will ‘park’, on the airport apron, has already been designated. However, this is information that still needs official validation, but it will mean, in any case, that the European Civil Protection Mechanism has been activated.