In view of the magnitude of the catastrophe caused by the forest fires in the central-southern part of the country, the Luksic family financed the Aero Tanker air tanker, one of the most versatile of its kind, to come to Chile for a month.
The MD-87 aircraft, which has the capacity to carry 11,300 liters of water, landed at the Carrizal Sur airport in Concepción on Friday, February 10, and since then has been at Conaf’s disposal to support firefighting in the regions of Ñuble, Bío Bío and La Araucanía.
“We hope that this aircraft, together with the efforts made by the government and private companies, will be an important contribution to be able to put an end to the fires that have unfortunately affected so many people in our country. We will continue to work, as always, with these and other initiatives, to support Chile and get ahead of this emergency,” said Paola Luksic, president of the Luksic Foundation.
The Aero Tanker has been in the country for more than three weeks, which translates into more than 66 hours of flight time since it took off from Oregon, in the United States, and has performed more than 90 water discharges to fight the fire, all this in constant coordination with the emergency teams led by Conaf.
This week, the Viento Sur Foundation, led by Lucy Ana Avilés, joined the funding of the Aero Tanker’s flight hours, just like for the 2017 fires when both organizations funded the operation of the Supertanker.
Committed to Chile, the Luksic family is also working, through its different organizations, to support this emergency. Specifically, from the Luksic Foundation, the family is focusing its efforts to support entrepreneurs, educational communities and families in the affected territories. Meanwhile, Fundación Te Apoyamos is channeling individual requests and the needs of the municipalities.
