Both pilots die after plane crashes while fighting Greek wildfires

Rescue workers at the site of the crashed plane, which was flying low when it clipped a tree and the pilots lost control. Photograph: Stelios Misinas/Reuters

Two Greek pilots have died after their water-bombing plane crashed into a hillside while attempting to fight the wildfires ravaging the country.

The water bomber, a Canadair CL-215, hit a hillside in Evia in the battle to extinguish flames near a village outside Karystos. Greece’s air force, which owns the plane, later announced that both pilots had died in the crash.