August the 30th, 2022 - The Air Force of the Croatian Armed Forces has spent over 800 hours flying in Croatian skies during the height of the summer season this year, as wildfire outbreaks increased in the scorching weather which created a dangerous, tinder dry landscape.
As Morski writes, since the beginning of the second part of the firefighting season this summer, the Air Force of the Croatian Armed Forces has participated in extinguishing as many as 102 wildfires in several different counties, performing 5,682 different flights in total.
Most of these interventions, as usual, took place in the coastal areas of the country, where the heatwave and droughts have caused a number of fires, some of which caused extensive damage. The one which raged near Sibenik will remain in most people's memories.
The air force put out the most fires, thirty, in Split-Dalmatia County, 24 in Zadar County, 21 in Sibenik-Knin County, 12 in Istria County, seven in Lika-Senj County, five in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, two in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and one in Sisak-Moslavina County. On firefighting tasks in II. phase of this summer's fire season, 5,682 flights were realised, about 841 hours of flying were achieved and about 28,693 tonnes of water was released in different areas.
The unmanned aerial systems team was engaged seven times and carried out about 14 flights in Croatian skies with the BZS Orbiter 3 in monitoring high-risk areas for fire outbreaks.
In addition to all of the above, as many as 49 reconnaissances were carried out by fire-fighting aircraft in the coastal counties of the country. A total of 276 requests for extinguishing wildfires have been received by the Croatian Fire Association throughout 2022 so far. On the mentioned tasks, 6,298 flights were carried out, about 948 hours of flying were achieved, and about 31,393 tonnes of water was used, the Croatian Ministry of Defense (MOD) recently announced.
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