ay from the fire. The police initially speculated that when the helicopter was hovering after taking water from a nearby reservoir, the tail wing was suspected to be stuck in a plastic greenhouse, causing the fuselage to lose balance and crash after flip.

  On April 6, local time, a rental helicopter carrying out wildfire fighting operations in the west cave in the north district of Daegu, South Korea crashed, killing the pilot. (Visual China)

  The crashed helicopter is a Bell-206L type helicopter produced by the American Bell Company in 1981. It has a maximum water load of about 550 liters and a age of 44 years. The aircraft was leased by the Daegu East District Government from civil airlines for spring forest fire prevention. The dead pilot, Zheng, is 74 years old. He has been flying helicopters since 1986. He has 39 years of flight experience and has worked in the South Korean Police Department and several airline operators.

  Just last month on the 26th of last month, a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter in Yisheng County, North Gyeongsang Province crashed while extinguishing a wildfire, and the 73-year-old pilot on board was unfortunately killed. After the accident, the South Korean Forestry Department urgently ordered the suspension of national fire helicopter rescue missions and comprehensive inspection of old equipment.

  According to reports, the occurrence of continuous accidents highlights the systematic shortcomings of South Korea's mountain forest fire protection system in equipment updates and personnel management. South Korean experts said that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recommended that helicopter pilots retire at 65 years old, but South Korea does not enforce the law. Wildfire scenes are usually filled with smoke and unstable winds, and older pilots cannot bear greater physiological and psychological burdens.

  Park Won-tae, a professor in the Department of Aviation and Shipping at Cheongshou University, said that in theory, the service life of a helicopter is usually ranging from 30 to 45 years. Once poor maintenance is done, the stability of the whole machine will drop significantly and the risk will increase exponentially. According to data from the South Korean Forestry Department, 33 of the 50 fire helicopters in service in the country have been in service for more than 20 years and 12 have been in service for more than 30 years. At the same time, among helicopters purchased by local governments or leased from private enterprises, the problems of aging equipment and untimely replacement of parts are also common.

  The report analyzed that the successive crashes of helicopters should become a wake-up call for South Korea to reflect on the aging of wildfire prevention and control system. The government should immediately launch a "comprehensive physical examination" of active helicopters, gradually eliminate overdue service equipment, and establish a pilot's age and health status review mechanism to avoid more casualties in the future.

  On the other hand, the frequent occurrence of fire helicopter crashes also highlights the serious situation of frequent wildfires in South Korea. On the 6th, fires were reported one after another in Cheongju City, Chungcheong Province, Ulsan City, Suncheon City, Jeolla South Province, and Nyeong-gun, Gangwon Province. Officials from the Forestry Department said that due to the recent dry weather and strong wind, it is very easy to cause the fire to spread. South Korea's "the worst wildfire" in Yisheng-gun and Sancheong-gun in March killed at least 30 people, with an overburden area of ​​about 48,000 hectares and thousands of buildings were razed to the ground.

[Editor in charge: Wang Jinzhi]