Latest Tragedy To Hit Global Community

An Australian pilot was killed Saturday night when his Air Tractor crashed during a water-bombing run in Mallorca, Spanish emergency services said. The crash brings the number of firefighters killed this season in Spain to 14, including one other pilot.

"He was going to put out a fire and he was killed after crashing," a spokesman said. According to the spokesman, the aircraft was from the Balearic Islands Nature Institute.

The pilot's name was not released pending notification of his family.

This year's fire season has been especially brutal in Spain, as the region experiences its worst drought in 60 years. Another pilot died fighting the Spanish fires on August 6, after crashing into a mountain while fighting a fire near Orense.

Neighboring Portugal has also lost 15 people this year, most of them ground firefighters, to the blazes.

Always a dangerous practice, the risks of aerial firefighting have come to light over the past several years, starting with crashes of two US firebombers in 2002. Several countries worldwide have experienced losses of their own, including two French pilots whose Grumman Tracker crashed in the Ardeche region of France on August 20.

FMI: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_firefighting