Page 82 - World Airnews Magazine April 2020 Edition

NEWS DIGITAL

AIRBUS TRANSPORTS

MASKS TO SPAIN

An Airbus A400M airlifter has performed an air-bridge between Toulouse and Madrid in order to deliver critically-
needed mask supplies to the Spanish health system. The aircraft, known as MSN56 and operated by an Airbus crew,
took off on 23rd March 2020 from Airbus’ headquarters in Toulouse at 18.07 local time (CET) landing at the Getafe
Air Base (Madrid) at 19.05 to off-load and deliver the masks to the Spanish Ministry of Defence.The cargo is part of
the approximately two million masks transported over the weekend by a test Airbus A330-800 aircraft from Tianjin,
China, to Europe.This air-bridge will enable the delivery of a significant supply of masks to the Spanish public health
network in support of current COVID-19 crisis efforts. This comes on top of donations by Airbus in recent days to
provide thousands of masks to hospitals and public services around Europe. The company will continue to support
with additional flights planned to take place in the coming days in co-ordination with national authorities.

NEWS DIGITAL

MOUNTAIN COULD BE RESEEDED

USING HELICOPTERS

habitat suffering ‘catastrophic damage’. re-seed the areas of land scorched by
The fire site is in the Bryniau Clwyd a the fires.
An environment watchdog report Dyffryn Dyfrdwy/Clwydian Range and Dee The method involves using mulch and
into a fire that burned for weeks on a Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty ‘tackifier’ which could be added to water
Denbighshire mountain has stated that (AONB) in North Wales. or used dry and distributed from a bucket
it wants to use helicopters to re-seed Vast areas of upland heath - on which slung under a helicopter.
the slopes. heather, bilberry and gorse grew - were It’s a process that’s been used successful-
The Natural Resources Wales study into completely destroyed down to the subsoil. ly in places like New Zealand and the USA
the fire on Llantysilio Mountain above So re-seeding the area is dangerous ac- - but described as “novel” for the UK.
Llangollen in 2018 made the suggestion cording to the report due to the instability The report said, “Neither (wet nor
because of the extent of damage to of the ground on the steep slopes, where dry) methods are currently widely used
the area. peat has been burned almost completely in the UK and both require discussions
The blaze raged from mid-July until late away in some areas. between hydro seeding contractors/suppli-
August 2018, resulting in approximately NRW proposes a little-used technique ers and the helicopter operators to allow a
250 hectares (617 acres) of mountain in the UK, helicopter hydro seeding, to workable method to be developed. Q

World Airnews | April Extra 2020
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