The helicopters sent by the Andalusian government to collaborate in the work of DANA return to their bases after two days of inactivity. Last Wednesday, the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno, announced from Granada that he had contacted the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, to offer him the necessary means to deal with the incidents caused by DANA.
During a press appearance at the new laboratories of the San Cecilio Clinical Hospital, in the capital of Granada, Moreno revealed that “from the beginning” the three high-capacity Super Puma helicopters would be moved there, which only the government of Andalusia also has the Army. These are devices with a large capacity to move both rescue teams and goods. They were the ideal vehicle for accessing areas devastated by floods by air and rescuing stranded people or bringing them supplies.
That same afternoon, two of these helicopters landed in the Valencian Community and had to return home two days later without anyone assigning them any task, as this newspaper learned.
Positioned since Wednesday afternoon
That same Wednesday, at 6:05 p.m., the social networks of the Andalusian Forest Fire Extinguishing Service (Infoca) reported that the planes were already positioned to work: “With the arrival of the KA-70 at the Mutxamel airfield (# Alicante) The two planes moved from #Andalusia are now on the base, to be made available to the management of #Emergencies of the Valencian Community”, indicates a message in X accompanied by a video.
A KA-40 based in Los Moralillos (Granada) and a KA-70 from Cártama (Málaga) were able to arrive safely. However, although Moreno offered three planes to the Generalitat, the third did not take off: the KA-80 based in Madroñalejos, in Aznalcóllar (Seville), because optimal conditions were not available to guarantee a safe takeoff. security.
Each of these helicopters can carry up to 19 people (in addition to the pilot and co-pilot). They have the capacity to store 3,500 liters of water, reach up to 277 kilometers per hour and have four hours of flight endurance.
On Friday, the two men who had arrived two days earlier turned back because no one had given them tasks in the disaster zone. The reason, according to what they assure elDiario.es of Valencia, is that the decision was made by representatives of the firefighters consortium of the Integrated Center for Operational Coordination (Cecopi). According to these sources, it was the firefighters themselves who made the decision to return the two helicopters after two days of waiting for orders, by not assigning them tasks. Faced with this situation, the pilots decided to take off and return to their bases.
It’s true that Last Friday the off-peak period came into force in Andalusia risk of forest fires, their work on Andalusian soil was therefore not as essential as in summer, although, due to the lack of assigned work, they decided to return to where, even at the base, they might be more useful.
The Council has repeatedly requested that they be given work
The Infoca Plan depends directly on the Ministry of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification. Sources from this entity tell elDiario.es Andalucia that what was done after Valencia’s request for help was to respond to it, and even “it was planned that there would be more units, but the weather conditions prevented this.
The same sources recognized that “the Valencian system did not assign them any specific activity” despite the fact that “they were contacted on several occasions”. Finally, they emphasize that “we must take into account that in an emergency, needs change.”
In fact, the Generaltat Valenciana has now asked the Junta de Andalucía for some of the fire engines it uses to put out forest fires, “and its request has been fulfilled”.
