Such accidents are extremely rare. The pilot of a water bomber lost his life Friday in the crash of his aircraft while fighting the fires of Générac, in the Gard, where nearly 800 hectares of woods, garrigues and vines burned since Tuesday. Contacted by Europe 1, Bahija, manager of a guest house on the heights of the town, said to have seen "a huge black smoke".
"There was a huge flame," she describes, as the bomber fought the fire at 5:40 pm. The plane was, she thinks, "hit by the flames". "It made a huge black smoke and then nothing," says the resident again, "like a jet of embers, a kind of flame throwing", but "not really an explosion".
A judicial inquiry in progress
From home, the guest house manager was able to attend the intervention of the various Canadians. "They are one behind the other, they are five or six, and they do not stop," she says again.
The crash victim is a Civil Security Tracker. This plane is the smallest of the water bombers that respond to fires, with Canadair and Dash. According to the prefecture, "a judicial investigation is underway, placed under the authority of the public prosecutor who has moved on the scene".