INDONESIA BRINGS TWO RUSIAN JETS TO HELP EXTINGUISH FOREST FIRES

Jakarta, 9 Muharram 1437/21 October 2015 (MINA) – The government brought two amphibious aircraft Beriev Be-200 aircraft along with 20 personnel from Russia to add the curret attacking of waterbombing, National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

The two Russian jets that can drop 12.5 tons of water arrived on Sumatra island Wednesday to help douse Indonesia’s massive forest fires that have spread smoky haze over parts of Southeast Asia.

According to Nugroho, the two Beriev Be-200 planes landed in Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra province to fight the fires soon.

Tne arrival came following the return of water bombing aircraft from Malaysia and Australia to their homebases on Monday (19/10) in accordance with a predetermined schedule.

Currently only a Chinook helicopter still do water bombing operation in South Sumatra, while the Bombardier aircraft from Malaysia and the Hercules from Australia ended its work for 5 days.

With the withdrawal, there are still 11 units of helicopters and planes for water bombing and cloud seeding, of which 10 units from Indonesia and one of Singapore.

Leased by Indonesia’s government and sent by Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, the Russian waterbombers can suck 13,250 liters (3,500 gallons) of water from a river or sea in seconds. Similar planes helped extinguish fires on Sumatra and Borneo islands in 2007.

Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Japan are among the other countries that have sent aircraft, firefighters or chemicals and experts to help fight the forest and brush fires that have raged for months. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).