There has been a lot of this kind of activity in the past few days:
(That’s not a rescue or anything dramatic so don’t get your loukoumades in a twist, Maureen.) Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed a lot more helicopter activity than usual, and have been speculating on why. (Speculating, Shirl’, this isn’t factual news.)
There have been several types of helicopters coming in, usually across the bay, over Harani and onto the landing pad which we can see from the sitting room. First, there’s what I assume is the Air Sea Rescue chopper because it has SAR on the side, and I’ve seen people getting off carrying stretchers and the like. I’m not sure if this is practice or if they have been rescuing refugees during the day. Possibly both because the people traffickers are now bolder and bring boats of ‘tourists’ over from Turkey during the day, and their desperate fee-payers clamber off dressed as if for a holiday. I guess, in a way, that’s safer than the night crossings.
Then, there are the private choppers belonging to the rich and couldn’t-care-less who think nothing of flying to Rhodes to meet a private helicopter to fly them across to Symi where they get a private car to take them to a private speedboat to take them around the island someone else’s private yacht for lunch, during which they might discuss climate change and how other people should be doing more, before making the return journey in the same fuel-guzzling way in the late afternoon.
Some of the smaller, mosquito-type helicopters may be bringing superstar names over to perform at the Symi Festival, I guess, not that that’s any better than the rich and unconcerned when we have something like ten perfectly good boats a day coming from Rhodes. Then, there is the occasional military chopper, though I’ve not seen any of those of late. They tend to come in bringing bigwigs from various military departments when there’s a commemoration or a parade. Finally, the other one I’ve not seen much of of late is the medical helicopter, which is a good thing, I suppose. They used to practice regularly on a Monday or Tuesday night but haven’t been doing that recently. Maybe it’s more of a winter thing.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, those are my early Monday morning thoughts. Now, it’s upwards and onwards to my final edits as I’ve a deadline to make by Thursday.
