The American firefighting aircraft nicknamed the Supertanker has landed at Ben Gurion Airport to help fire crews on the ground and in the air to extinguish a series of fires raging around the country, especially in the hills surrounding Jerusalem.
"We're here to help however we can," said the captain after the landing. "After 13 hours of flying, we're pretty tired, but in the morning we're out to help."
Supertanker lands in Israel
(צילום: אלי סגל)
Israel contacted the American company Global SuperTanker, which operates the aerial firefighter, to look into the possibility of it being flown to Israel. Indeed, a supertanker previously owned by the company Evergreen before it went bankrupt was flown to Israel to assist in the 2010 Carmel Forest Fires.
“It needs to be understood that the firefighting planes currently being used are not able to operate overnight. There is only one plane that has this ability, and that is the Supertanker,” Netanyahu said. “I instructed that it be brought here. It will take 24 hours to come from the US. We only use it in extreme situations. We don’t use it for everything but I prefer that we have too much rather than too little.”