The pilot of a Canadair firefighting plane lost control of his craft on Tuesday after dumping a load of water on a wildfire over the town of Karystos on Evia, an island near the city of Athens.

Viral video of the tragedy, as captured by the Greek news channel EPT, showed the pilot clip a tree moments before he was forced into a hard turn and crashed into a hill, followed by an explosion.

Local Tasos Dugias told the media,

Since this morning a pair of Canadair has been operating. The fire was in a very difficult place and they were forced to make dangerous maneuvers to 'hit' the fire. The pilots were picking the planes up at the last minute. I wasn't there at the time of the plane crash, but I saw what efforts they made during the day.

A helicopter was reportedly sent to the scene of the crash, but the pilot is feared dead. There is no report yet on whether there were additional crew members onboard the plane.

On social media, some commenters offered analysis of what happened.

Wildfires across Greece have led to the evacuation of 3,500 people over the past few days. The Canadair CL-415 aircraft is able to scoop up 1,620 gallons of water at a time to help in putting out such fires.