All Federal Air Tankers Grounded

[ramseycl]

Governor Richardson says he is furious about a federal decision to ground its aging fleet of 33 air tankers used to fight forest fires and vows he will fight it.

Just as the 2004 wildfire season opens, the Forest Service and the Interior Department terminated contracts Monday with private companies for use of the former military planes after the National Transportation Safety Board determined their airworthiness could be not assured. Three such planes crashed between 1994 and 2002, killing seven crewmembers.

Forest Service officials say that, in the wake of the NTSB report, continuing to use the tankers posed “an unacceptable risk” to aviators, ground firefighters and communities near the blazes.

“Safety is behind all of this,” said Forest Service spokesman Lynn Young. “We don’t want to get anybody killed trying to put out a fire, whether it be a pilot or a person on the ground.”

The fixed-wing planes, some of them as old as 60 years, had been used primarily in initial attacks on fires and protecting buildings when fires were moving toward urban areas. The tankers were each capable of dumping from 1,700 to 2,500 gallons of water a minute.

Forest Service says it still has the use of 491 other aircraft, including smaller fixed-wing planes and helicopters.

But Governor Richardson says that is not enough. Richardson told Eyewitness News 4 Monday he plans to take immediate action to try to reverse the grounding of air tankers.

“This is an incredibly dumb decision,” said Richardson. “We want to have safety for the crews, but they should have had a contingency plan. What is ‘Plan B.’”

The governor says the Forest Service has known about its aging air tankers for some time and is upset the decision to ground the fleet comes just as the new wildfire season is starting.

“To get rid of air tankers right now without a contingency plan, without any consultation, this is the worst possible decision for us,” he said.

Young says air tankers have been effective on a first attack on forest fires but that the planes don’t put out fires, ground crews do.

“We’ve got a lot of other firefighting sources,” said Young. “So, we’ve just got to kind of strategize how they can best be placed and how we can get along without using the heavy air tanker tool.”

The Forest Service says there are discussions as to using Blackhawk helicopters and C-130 planes to fight fires.

Governor Richardson, who is also chairman of the Western Governors Association, says he plans to organize a protest with other states. He says he also wants to organize emergency funding and planes.

[NJFFSA16]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal forest officials said Tuesday they
will rely on military planes, along with other, smaller aircraft,
to fight forest fires after grounding large air tankers this week
because of safety concerns.
Firefighting agencies will use as many as eight military C-130
planes along with water-carrying helicopters and fixed-wing planes
akin to crop-dusters, officials said.
It will cost anywhere from $26 million to $40 million to replace
the big tankers, including costs to terminate the existing
contracts, which had been signed though the 2004 fire season, said
Mark Rey, the Agriculture undersecretary who directs forest policy.
"We will not be short-handed. We will have to stretch to
reconfigure, but we should be just fine," Rey told the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday.
Some lawmakers were unconvinced.
"I seriously doubt your agency will able to fight fires
effectively and efficiently," said Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.
"I don't think there is any question that we are obviously
facing a tough year," said Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo. "If you
reduce your ability to fight fires, you are going to have a
problem."
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said he worried that tanker
companies with good safety records, such as Montana-based Neptune
Aviation Services, were being "punished for the safety missteps of
others."
Rey denied that and said officials grounded the tankers after
concluding they did not have enough expertise to ensure that the
privately owned planes were safe to fly.
"To continue to use these large air tankers when no mechanism
exists to ensure their airworthiness presents an unacceptable level
of risk to aviators, the firefighters on the ground and the
communities that we serve," Rey said.
The head of an association that represents air tanker companies
said officials were condemning companies throughout the West to
bankruptcy. Aircraft contractors are located in Arizona,
California, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming, with subsidiaries in
several other states.
"I just feel they've walked away from this whole issue and not
properly addressed it," said Bill Broadwell, executive director of
the Aerial Firefighting Industry Association. "They could have
done better."
The 33 large, fixed-wing tankers - each of which can drop as
much as 3,000 gallons of fire-retardant slurry on a blaze - make up
less than 10 percent of the aerial firefighting fleet, which also
includes more than 400 helicopters, smaller single-engine tankers
and lead planes.
The big "fire bombers," though, have come to symbolize to the
public that a wildfire is being fought vigorously.
That image suffered in recent years, as three planes crashed
between 1994 and 2002, killing seven crew members. After two planes
went down in 2002, the Forest Service grounded the tanker fleet.
The planes were returned to service after a new inspection system
was developed.
But last month, the National Transportation Safety Board said
the safety and airworthiness of the fleet still could not be
assured. The agency said information on the stresses that the
planes underwent in fighting fires was incomplete, and there were
gaps in maintenance and inspection records dating back to the
planes' military use. The planes' average age is nearly 50 years,
and some are as old as 60 years.
Broadwell, the industry representative, questioned how federal
officials could be confident that smaller aircraft can safely fight
fires.
"If they don't have the expertise to manage large air tankers,
what gives them expertise to manage helicopters or single-engine
air tankers?" he asked.
---
On the Net:
National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov
Aerial Firefighting Industry Association: http://www.afia.com

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Single-engine air tankers and helicopters
will be used in Montana and Wyoming to help fill the void created
by the federal government's decision this week to ground a fleet of
aging air tankers, fire officials in the region said Tuesday.
But some also are expressing concerns with the availability of
aircraft during what many expect will be a busy fire season. Air
tankers that were grounded for safety reasons were largely used in
initial attacks on wildfires.
"I totally support what the federal agencies did. Knowing the
issues with the aircraft, they couldn't take a risk," Ray
Weidenhaft, fire management officer at the Wyoming State Forestry
Division, said Tuesday. "But I just can't believe it won't impact
us dramatically because there are only so many helicopters and
single-engine air tankers available."
On Monday, the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior
said they were terminating the contract for 33 large air tankers
because of concerns with airworthiness and safety. The decision
followed an April 23 report by the National Transportation Safety
Board on three air tanker accidents, the agencies said.
Gov. Judy Martz, in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Ann
Veneman, said there must be other options and that she would be
working with other Western governors to find "reasonable solutions
to this problem."
"Grounding the fleet indefinitely creates a void in our
firefighting strategy that will be difficult to fill and could
exacerbate problems related to the safety of our firefighting
forces," Martz wrote.
Though their availability for any given wildfire wasn't assured
- factors such as the priority given to individual fires figured in
- the large air tankers were especially helpful in knocking down
fires before they grew extensively, said Bob Harrington, Montana's
state forester. In Montana, sporadic fires already have broken out,
and a large tanker was used a few days ago on a wildfire in
south-central Montana, he said.
"There's no question it will have a significant effect on our
ability to suppress fires," Harrington said. However, "we're
trying to do the best we can to respond to the new reality."
He said he envisions the use of a combination of resources and
cooperation among states and various agencies to share what
resources are available. Among the possible options are use of
single-engine air tankers, with smaller capacity for water and
retardant than the large air tankers, "water scooper" planes and
large helicopters, he said. Resources could also be pre-positioned
on the ground to aid in initial attacks, he said.
While National Guard helicopters proved a big help last year,
their availability this fire season is in question because of the
war in Iraq, Harrington said.
In Wyoming, Weidenhaft said officials will try to be more
aggressive on early attacks. But he said he realizes competition
for aircraft - one aspect of firefighting - could be intense. He
said fires will probably burn more acres in some remote areas and
in places where it's difficult to get crews.
"It's difficult to plan," Weidenhaft said. "It would be
really nice if we knew when and where fires were going to start."
Rich Homann, fire division supervisor with the Colorado State
Forest Service, said officials are prepared for an
"above-average" fire season. Resources available include
single-engine air tankers and inmate crews.
As in the other states, firefighters on the local county level
also play an important part in initial attacks, he said.
Homann said the large air tankers were a "good tool" but just
one available to fire managers.
"The termination of the federal tankers does take 33 pieces of
equipment out of service that may have been used on fires and the
fire community will adapt," he said.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-05-11-04 2305EDT

[Rayr49]

The April issue of Air International magazine reports Hawkins and Powers has ordered eight Russian built Be 200 amphibious firefighting aircraft. They will be built with Rolls Royce engines instead of the Russian engine. It is estimated that it will take four years to obtain FAA and European certification so it will be 2008 before they arrive.


The aircraft are jet powered nd have the ability to "scoop" water.

http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/index.html

Scroll down to the regional jets section and click on the Be 200 link for more info on the aircraft.

Stay Safe
IACOJ

[NJFFSA16]

Originally posted by Rayr49
The April issue of Air International magazine reports Hawkins and Powers has ordered eight Russian built Be 200 amphibious firefighting aircraft.

Apparently, Hawkins and Powers have every intention of staying in the aerial firefighting business. I hope they receive the support of the US agencies that award the firefighting contracts.

If the government can spend billions of dollars fighting the enemy in Iraq....why can't they spend a mere fraction of that...fighting our enemy in the forests? It's time for some appropriation of funds for aerial firefighting updates that are long overdue.

Thanks for the info Rayr49!

[budthespud]

Deplorable Safety Record of Firefighting Aircraft Scored in Report

For people really into this stuff, here's a piece
from the venerable Air Safety Week publication.

It tends to be long, but shorter than the reams
of (hand-wringing) material that led to this publication.

Note that one of the conclusions is, Canada runs aerial
ops with far more integrity than the US Forest Service
managed to do.

Oddly enough, Canada has conceded all decision-making
on the Il-76 waterbomber to the US Forest Service, which
had seen maybe two runs of the IL-76 waterbomber in action
before the 2002 NATO exercise, pictured here, where 60
Americans were present: http://www.nato.int/pictures/2002/020925b/b020925g.jpg

The Aussies ran a full five (5) days of tests on the
IL-76. They conclude the IL-76 is a very, very good
firefighting aircraft (Google that for the newspaper
article.)

Australia's groundpounder-inclined firefighter culture
finds it difficult to admit large air tankers are useful.
Australia has never had a large air tanker although public
support for (more expensive) large helicopters remains firm.

As well, Australia suffers from a constitution that, like
Canada's, vests firefighting power decisions with the States/Provinces.

It follows that developing a national fire plan around a truly strategic firefighting appliance like the IL-76 is very, very difficult. Adopting short hop choppers suits State authorities,
who pay lip service to a national fire plan, rather better.

[budthespud]

Large air tankers to be tested in the USA.

The Forest Service had been telling people that the FAA
had jurisdiction over the IL-76 waterbomber when the FAA
didn't even have jurisdiction over US air tankers.

Now, some ad hoc FAA procedure appears to be
coming into play for the retired 33 large air tankers
while Evergreen is telling people it expects to receive
large air tanker certification (whatever that is}
by July, based on test runs on tanks no larger than those
of the Il-76 waterbomber, in mission service thoughout
the 90s.

[NJFFSA16]

Other assets earmarked for Black Hills fires
wmosdrap
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Although a fleet of heavy air tankers
won't be available in the foreseeable future, an official with the
Black Hills National Forest said other assets will be available to
fight fires in the forest in southwest South Dakota and northeast
Wyoming.
Citing safety concerns with the aging planes, the U.S. Forest
Service and Interior Department on May 10 indefinitely grounded 33
airplanes that had been used to drop fire retardants on wildfires.
Dean Burger, fire management officer for the Black Hills
National Forest, told the Pennington County Commission on Tuesday
that discussion about the heavy air tankers is going on at the
Washington, D.C., level and that Congress has gotten involved.
Burger said a contract has been awarded to a private corporation
to inspect the fleet of heavy air tankers to certify the planes'
airworthiness.
"As far as a timeline of when these air tankers will be in the
air, I have nothing to tell you other than there's a lot of
pressure at the top about it," Burger said. "Congress is actively
involved in trying to get something worked out."
Firefighter safety is the top priority for federal agencies,
Burger said, and the mandate is to protect firefighters whether
they are in the air or on the ground.
Federal agencies are doing everything they can to increase the
number of other aviation assets available for fire suppression
needs across the country, he said.
Some examples Burger cited include five medium-sized helicopters
under contract, one of which will be placed in the Black Hills.
Additionally, heavy helicopters will be available for urban
interface fires, which Burger said are probably as effective in
protecting structures due to their accuracy, and there will be
another single-engine air tanker placed in the Black Hills.
"They're not the same tool as the heavy air tanker; they don't
carry the same payload, but they are an additional asset," Burger
said.
Tactics and strategies will have to change a little bit without
the heavy air tanker, but Burger said the job of fighting fires
will still get done.
"We think we're putting some resources in place, other
resources in the tool box, that are going to make us just as
successful as far as our local suppression response," he said.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[budthespud]

Dean Burger, eh?

Is Dean Burger related to David Burger,
reporter, who put this piece Arson by Omission together?

Were you aware that in 1995, the US Forest
Service called IL-76 an Emergency
Supplemental Air Tanker in a 35-page
report they wrote following a short test in the
UK? Just hang some paint on it, install a radio,
and go, they said.

Since that time, the US Forest Service issued a
series of mind-bogglingly idiotic comments on why
the US isn't using the IL-76.

Look at the comments of the Ca. USFS spokesman in the
David Burger piece. He actually thought the IL-76
was a (salt water) scooper. How much money does the US
government pay a guy like that?

[budthespud]

Pardon me for posting back-to-back
but at this point, I believe it's useful
to post an Associated Press recap of
SoCal damages from 2003. Too many people
simply like to brush data like this aside:

Key Facts About So. California Wildfires
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: November 2, 2003
Filed at 5:08 p.m. ET

A quick look at Southern California wildfires:
Acres burned: 745,950.
Homes destroyed: 3,495.
Deaths: 20.
Firefighting personnel: About 11,000.
Injuries: 185.
Number of fires reported since Oct. 21: 13.
Fires not fully contained: 5.

[NJFFSA16]

MINDEN, Nev. (AP) - The owners of two grounded air tankers in
Minden believe the 7,600 acre Waterfall fire in Carson City could
have been slowed at the outset if their firefighting planes were
allowed to fly.
Inspections began Monday of the air tankers owned by Minden Air
Corp. to determine if they are safe to fly.
"We feel very strongly that if we had been called, the fire
wouldn't have gotten out of control," said Janet Parker, Minden
Air Corp. president and co-owner. "The damage would have been far
less."
But a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman said its unlikely the
additional tankers could have stalled the fire that broke out last
Wednesday and raged out of control for two days, destroying 15
homes and one business.
"Based on the resources that were dispatched to the fire, it's
hard to believe that any additional heavy air tankers would have
made a difference," said Christie Kalkowski, spokeswoman for the
Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.
Kalkowski said other conditions including temperatures, wind and
drought have to be taken into consideration in battling such an
intense blaze.
Minden Air Corp.'s two former Navy planes are among 33 heavy
tankers nationwide that were grounded by the Forest Service in May
because of safety concerns.
Western states, worried about the ongoing drought and prospects
for a severe fire season, prompted the federal agency to adopt a
revised safety inspection program in an effort to get some of the
planes back in the air.
Seven of the heavy tankers, all owned by Chico, Calif.-based
Aero Union, have been certified to fly. Three of the company's P-3
Orions worked the Waterfall Fire.
An inspection of Minden Air Corp.'s two P-2 aircraft - former
Navy planes a little older than the P-3s - is expected to last two
to three days, said Dave Wardall, deputy chief of aircraft
maintenance and engineering for the California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection.
Wardall said he was assigned to Fort Worth, Texas-based DynCorp
Technical Services under contract to the Forest Service to assess
the condition of the Minden aircraft.
He said the four-person inspection team will analyze maintenance
records and physically inspect the planes before submitting a
report.
The Forest Service said a decision on the Minden tankers could
be made by the end of the week.
Capable of dropping up to 3,000 gallons of fire retardant, the
large tankers have played a critical role in fighting wildland
fires around the West.
But three of the big bombers crashed between 1994 and 2002,
killing seven crew members. After two planes went down in 2002, the
Forest Service grounded the fleet.
The planes were returned to service after a new inspection
system was developed but 10 of the tankers remained grounded last
fire season.
---
Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Federal officials denied requests by two
companies to return several large air tankers to service to fight
wildfires on Monday, saying additional information was needed on
the life of the planes.
Officials lacked information on "operational life limit" of
aircraft operated by Neptune Aviation, of Missoula, Mont., and
Minden Air Corp., of Minden, Nev., one of the criteria needed to
help prove the air tankers airworthy, said Rose Davis, a
spokeswoman at the National Interagency Fire Center.
If officials received the information - and Davis said they
continue trying - they would reconsider returning the air tankers
to service, she said.
Right now, "we don't have the stuff from when they were a young
airplane to see what they've been through already," she said.
Without knowing how many hours have been attributed to the
airframe, she said, officials can't determine how long the aircraft
is "supposed to live."
Both companies operate planes known as P2Vs, Davis said, and
manufacturer Lockheed Martin may have the information available but
it is considered proprietary.
The decisions to keep the planes grounded were made by officials
from the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, Davis
said.
In May, the Forest Service and Interior said they were ending
the contract for 33 air tankers because of concerns with
airworthiness and public safety. That decision came after an April
23 report by the National Transportation Safety Board on three air
tanker crashes.
Federal officials later said some of the air tankers could be
used to help fight fires this summer if their operators could prove
they are safe to fly. In June, the Forest Service signed an
agreement with DynCorp Technical Services, a Texas-based firm, to
help in analyzing airworthiness documentation provided by operators
of the large air tankers.
Officials earlier announced that air tankers owned by
California's Aero Union Corp., had been approved, and Davis said
Monday that decisions on requests by other companies are likely in
the next couple weeks.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Monday that he will work to
launch a congressional investigation into how the decision
affecting Neptune was made, saying he's not convinced the Montana
company received a "fair shake."
"They haven't been treated fairly, and this decision flies in
the face of everyone who has been working to get them back in the
air," Baucus said in a statement.
Davis said officials were consistent in the criteria the
companies needed to meet. However, operational "life limit data"
will vary depending on the type of airplane a company uses, she
said.
Discussions will continue with Lockheed Martin to see if there
are ways to secure the data, and Monday's decision does not
completely "shut the door" on either company getting air tankers
back in service this fire season, Davis said. Still, she said, it
is not clear what kind of information might exist.
Janet Parker, president of Minden Air, the only private air
tanker company in Nevada, said she's trying to be hopeful. So far,
she said there have been no layoffs at the business but it's a
possibility she may soon have to consider.
"This is our livelihood," she said Monday. The company was
hoping to have two of its tankers approved for flight.
"We're generated enough documents that prove our aircraft are
safe. There's nothing that shows there's any problem with them in
the fatigue area," she said.
Minden Air's two former Navy twin-engine planes were built in
the late 1950s and are capable of dropping as much as 3,000 gallons
of fire-retardant slurry on a blaze.
Officials at Neptune Aviation did not immediately return a phone
call seeking comment.
---
On the Net:
http://www.neptuneaviation.com
http://www.mindenair.com

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

LAKEVIEW, Ore. (AP) - Under a hot high desert sun, three red and
white planes that resemble World War II-era P-51 fighters stand at
the ready on the apron of a tiny airport, their pilots and ground
crews reading paperback novels and chatting in the shade of a tarp.
When a fire call comes in to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management
air tanker base here, the pilots can be in the air in eight
minutes, following a Global Positioning System heading to a fire
with a 500-gallon load of pink sticky fire retardant to buy time
for the ground crews that will actually put out the blaze.
"Where we shine is rapid response," said Dale Campbell, 70, of
Sun City, Ariz., who started crop dusting in 1982 and has been
flying fires since 1991. "We operate 60 feet off the vegetation.
The average drop speed is 120 mph.
"We can go direct on the flames and paint 1,000 feet of line
per load," said Campbell, who flies for Western Pilot Service of
Phoenix, Ariz. "If we have a (ground) crew working behind us
mopping up, we can get around a fire pretty quick."
These are Single Engine Air Tankers - known as SEATS - modern
crop dusters converted to firefighting duty. They are helping take
up the slack since most of the nation's aging fleet of heavy air
tankers was grounded over safety issues and are part of a strategic
shift of firefighting aircraft toward initial attack - stopping
fires while they are still small - rather than pounding away at the
ones that get big.
Fire bosses say the heavy air tankers still have their place
delivering 3,000-gallon payloads at long distances to penetrate
heavy timber. But for quickly controlling small fires in juniper
and sagebrush after lightning moves through, the smaller and more
numerous SEATs can be a better tool, particularly when positioned
ahead of time close to the anticipated fires.
BLM started experimenting with a Dromadier M18 - a Polish-built
crop duster - in 1984 out of Hemet, Calif., recalls Mark Bickham,
the SEAT program manager at the National Interagency Fire Center in
Boise, Idaho.
A year later, Bickham heard about them while working as a
helicopter manager for the U.S. Forest Service in Wyoming, and
wrote a white paper recommending his agency start using them.
He went down to the Joshua Tree National Monument in 1986 when a
SEAT worked a fire for BLM. That year BLM contracted for seven of
the aircraft, mostly in the Southwest. The fleet grew to 11 in
1995, 27 in 2000 and 67 in 2003. This year, with most of the heavy
air tankers grounded, 76 are under contract, 36 of them Air Tractor
802 turboprops with an 800-gallon payload.
"We really need all the tools in the tool box to get this job
done as safely, effectively and efficiently as possible. When one
falls out you've got to try and fill in the gaps, not as a
replacement, but as a supplement.
"We have changed the way we fight fire. We send the airplanes
out sooner. We move them from base to base to get closer to where
the fire activity is."
Through the complicated system of contracting - some planes are
on full-time standby, while others are on call - SEAT use is likely
to double nationally this year, from $10 million to $20 million,
though the number of planes is up only 13 percent, Bickham said.
The planes start in the Southwest in the spring and follow the
fires north and west through the summer and fall.
Heavier tankers are much more expensive to operate, costing
$4,500 a day on standby and $2,500 an hour flying. SEATS cost
$1,000 to $1,600 a day, whether they are flying or standing by,
said Nancy Lull, spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire
Center.
This year saw the first two fatalities in SEATs. One crashed
fighting a fire near Cedar City, Utah, another en route to the SEAT
training center in Safford, Ariz. Causes remain under
investigation.
Last May, the Forest Service and BLM sparked a public uproar
when they canceled $30 million in contracts for 33 heavy air
tankers, citing safety concerns after two planes broke up in midair
in 2002, killing five people. Six had been slated for Oregon, and
one for Washington. Since then seven have been certified as
air-worthy, but only one for the Northwest, based at Moses Lake,
Wash.
To fill the gap, the state of Oregon hired four heavy air
tankers and the Forest Service and BLM boosted the fleet of SEATs
and helicopters. SEATS for Oregon and Washington doubled, from
seven to 14, spread around the high desert east of the Cascades.
Helicopters went up from 13 to 32, and are stationed both east and
west of the Cascades.
Gerry Day heads the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in
Portland, which juggles firefighting resources for Oregon and
Washington. He misses the heavy air tankers, but has been happy
with the way SEATs and helicopters have filled the gap since fire
managers made a conscious decision this year to focus them on
initial attack, rather than big project fires.
Through July, Oregon and Washington have seen 2,100 fires, 16
percent above average, but on only 65,000 acres, 50 percent below
average. They are catching up to 99 percent of the fires that
start, compared to 98 percent in a typical year, Day said.
Day attributes that partly to good luck - many of the lightning
storms that started fires also dropped rain. But he also has more
aircraft to work with, and has focused them on initial attack
rather than fighting big fires. When weather reports call for
lighting storms in a certain area, they are routinely
pre-positioned to be close to the action.
"We decided it was a good business decision," he said. "That
couple of fires that don't become large fires - that's a savings
often times in the millions of dollars."
Mike Evans, fire staff officer for BLM and Forest Service in
Lakeview, recalls a fire a couple years ago when SEATS delivered
more retardant than the big air tankers, because they were closer,
returning to the fire every nine minutes out of Lakeview, compared
to 50 minutes for the heavy tankers flying out of Klamath Falls,
about 100 miles to the west.
"The farther east you get from us, the more of a factor that
becomes," said Evans. "In the fuels we have, grasses and sage
brush, SEATS are real effective."
Like helicopters, the SEATS also have the advantage of requiring
only a short runway. They can land on a stretch of gravel road,
allowing ground crews to haul in retardant and fuel for remote
fires.
"If you can get down it in a pickup at 70 mph, we can get down
on it," said Campbell.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Now, I predict....a word from your friendly IL-76 salesperson. (on my ignore list)

[NJFFSA16]

National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594

April 21, 2005

****************************** ******************************
NTSB DISPATCHES TEAM TO INVESTIGATE
CRASH OF FIREFIGHTING AIRCRAFT IN CALIFORNIA

****************************** ******************************

The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a
team to begin an investigation into the crash of a
firefighting aircraft in California that killed all three
crewmembers aboard.

At approximately 6:50 p.m., PDT, Wednesday, April 20,
a Lockheed P-3B air tanker, N926AU, owned and operated by
the Aero Union Corporation of Chico, California, crashed
immediately following a fire retardant training drop near
Chico. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed.

According to the company, the accident flight was the
seventh flight of the day for that aircraft. The purpose of
the flights was to conduct qualification checks for pilots
who were scheduled to conduct firefighting operations during
the upcoming fire season. The aircraft was manufactured in
1966 and was formerly operated by the United States Navy.
It was powered by four Allison T56A11 turboprop engines.

Senior air safety investigator Georgia Struhsaker,
from the NTSB's Seattle regional office, will lead the team
as Investigator-in-Charge. She will be joined by four NTSB
investigators, with assistance from representatives of the
Federal Aviation Administration, Lockheed Aircraft
Corporation, and the Aero Union Corporation. Rolls Royce
(Allison) Engines will also be offered party status. NTSB
Member Ellen Engleman Conners will accompany the team and
serve as principal spokesperson for the on-scene
investigation. Paul Schlamm is also accompanying the team
as press officer.

The Safety Board issued 5 recommendations (A-04-29
through 33) last year to the Department of Agriculture, the
Department of Interior and the Federal Aviation
Administration as a result of several accidents involving
structural failure of firefighting aircraft (it is unknown
at this time if yesterday's accident is related to
structural failure). Those recommendations may be found on
the Board's web site via the following link:
http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/200...5F29%5F33.pdf.

[NJFFSA16]

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - Family members of two men killed in a plane
crash while fighting a Colorado wildfire sued six federal agencies,
saying the agencies allowed lax airplane maintenance.
The amended lawsuit added the Agriculture, Interior and
Transportation departments, the Bureau of Land Management, the
Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Forest Service,
according to U.S. District Court records. Hawkins & Powers Aviation
Inc. already was named as a defendant.
The lawsuit says federal agencies saved money by relying for
decades on private contractors, such as Hawkins and Powers, and
encouraged those contractors to fly older aircraft.
"All of these policies, and many others, demonstrate that the
U.S. Forest Service and its employees were completely responsible
for updating the maintenance schedules of the P4Y-2 as that plane
underwent extensive (and improper) modifications in order to serve
as a fire fighting bombardier aircraft," the lawsuit said.
As of Friday, the federal government had not yet responded to
the lawsuit. Hawkins & Powers has denied responsibility in previous
court filings.
Pilot Rich Schwartz, of Ulm, Mont., and co-pilot Milton Stollak,
of Cathedral City, Calif., died July 18, 2002, when the left wing
fell of their plane, igniting fuel and sending the plane crashing
to the ground in northern Colorado. Schwartz and Stollak were
fighting the Big Elk fire near Estes Park, Colo.
Last year, federal air safety inspectors determined that an
18-inch crack in a wing support caused the World War II-era plane
to crash, confirming the results of a Forest Service report a year
earlier.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

By BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - National forest officials were
optimistic Friday that early findings in the fatal crash of an air
tanker in Northern California would not ground the federal
firefighting air fleet this summer, a spokesman said.
An initial review of the fiery crash that killed three pilots
Wednesday in the rugged mountains of the Lassen National Forest
found all the wreckage within a two-acre burn zone, said Paul
Schlamm, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman.
That observation renewed confidence in plans by federal
firefighting officials to return more air tankers to the skies for
the West's wildfire season, said Matt Mathes, a U.S. Forest Service
spokesman.
"At first glance, it sounds as if there was not a structural
problem in the air," Mathes said. "This is certainly a promising
development. We're going to wait for more information as the
investigation proceeds, but we are cautiously optimistic."
Last May, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the
Interior terminated contracts for 33 large air tankers, citing
concerns with public safety after two different types of air
tankers broke up in midair in 2002.
But the government agreed to reinstate some planes after
extensive testing at the urging of air tanker contractors led by
Aero Union Corp. of Chico, which owned the plane that crashed
Wednesday and had a good safety record.
The plane, a P-3 Orion built for the Navy in 1966 and flown by
an experienced crew, was one of 10 air tankers approved for federal
firefighting contracts Monday.
"We put that particular plane through two kinds of tests,"
said Mathes. "It has passed every single test we can give it."
Air tankers are a small part of the federal firefighting air
fleet, but are considered indispensable by Western lawmakers who
have criticized previous groundings and lobbied hard to bring them
back into service during the wildfire season.
More and more, they are being displaced by a much larger fleet
of helicopters, which can be more effective, Mathes said.
Helicopters can accurately drop water or fire retardant directly
on targets, they don't have to land to refill and their focused
drop can penetrate deeper into forests with greater force.
There are 700 helicopters in the federal fleet, including some
that can carry 3,000 gallons of water or fire retardant - the same
payload as the largest tankers.
"What's being lost in all this is that air tankers don't put
fires out," Mathes said. "What they do is they slow the fire down
so the men and women on the ground can get a handle on the fire and
get a line around it."
More than a dozen federal investigators worked at the scene of
the crash 120 miles north of Sacramento and reviewed pilot logs and
maintenance records at the Chico airport, where the plane had
successfully returned from six missions earlier in the day
Wednesday.
The NTSB did not reach any early conclusions and had not ruled
anything out, Schlamm said.
The Aero Union plane left the airport with 2,500 gallons of
water, but it was not clear if it had dropped the water before the
crash, he said. In earlier statements, the NTSB said the plane
crashed immediately after dropping its load.
Investigators spent the day documenting and diagramming the
wreckage area. By late Friday, Schlamm said, they had identified
the badly burnt remnants of the entire plane, including the four
engines, control surfaces and so-called four corners of the plane:
the nose, tail and wing tips.
An examination of the engines revealed that they were producing
power when the plane crashed, Schlamm said.
In the previous crashes that resulted in the grounding of the
tanker fleet, the planes broke apart in midflight, leaving the
wings far from the rest of the wreckage.
The company said the crew members killed were all experienced
pilots: Brian Bruns, 45, of Minden, Nev.; Paul Cockrell, 52, of
Fresno; and Thomas Lynch, 41, of Redding. Lynch was the company's
chief pilot.
Lynch's wife, Lori, said she worried about her husband from the
day she met him and even tried to persuade him to do something
else.
"He wanted to be out there on the runways and close to that
fire," Lori Lynch told the Redding Record Searchlight newspaper.
"Once you get that in your blood, you can't get it out."
Cockrell's brother, Gary Cockrell, was killed piloting an Aero
Union air tanker 10 years ago in a collision with a Forest Service
plane as they both prepared to land at a Southern California
airport after fighting a state park fire. Three pilots were killed
in the crash, which was the last tragedy involving Aero Union.
---
On the Net:
Aero Union: http://www.aerounion.com/
National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

CHICO, Calif. (AP) - Firefighters from across the nation sent
condolence letters and joined roughly 350 people at a memorial
service to remember three pilots who died April 20 when their air
tanker crashed on a training flight near Lassen National Forest.
Messages piled on a table and pinned to a wall inside an
aircraft hangar made the point that Aero Union chief pilot Tom
Lynch, 42, Brian Bruns, 47, and Paul Cockrell, 52, served the
nation when they dropped retardant on wildfires each summer.
"I'm inspired by those who give their lives in service to
others," said Pastor Greg Cootsona of Bidwell Presbyterian Church.
"Their daily work was an act of courage."
Ron Hunter, Aero Union's director of flight operations, said
Cockrell, the father of two children, was a quiet family man with a
strong religious faith and a love of the outdoors.
Bruns was a practical joker with a heart of gold, Hunter said.
The former Navy commander flew in the Gulf War; his old squadron
from Point Magu sent an honor guard and officers presented the
pilots' families with folded American flags.
Lynch "was more comfortable in the cockpit than he ever was
flying a desk," Hunter said.
Though he was in charge of training and qualifying other crew
members for firefighting duties, "He didn't get to fly as much as
he would like since he took the chief pilot's job," said Lynch's
widow, Lori. "He just liked getting in there putting out fires."
A single bell was rung at the end of Wednesday's service - once
a common practice for firefighters to signal the completion of
duties at a fire scene.
The crash of the P-3 Orion, the company's first since 1995, is
being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[budthespud]

AP's not where it's at.

Geissinger's where it's at.

Use GoogleNews or YahooNews in
association with the following
search terms to get to the real
news on "air tankers", commonly
referred to in Canada as
waterbombers:

Geissinger

Rorabacher

Schwarzenegger

Weldon

Robinson

tankers

Mix your search term combos for
best results.

[NJFFSA16]

By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -The Forest Service will reinstate a fleet of 25
heavy tankers and other large aircraft to join hundreds of smaller
planes and helicopters in combatting what is expected to be another
tough wildfire season this summer.
Officials said Thursday that despite some recent safety
concerns, they have contracted to use nine P2V tankers and seven
former Navy P-3 Orions to fight wildfires across the West. The
large fixed-wing aircraft can drop up to 3,000 gallons of chemical
fire retardant on blazes.
Seven of the P2V tankers are owned by Neptune Aviation in
Missoula, Mont.
In addition, a former Douglas DC7 propeller airliner,
retrofitted with fire monitoring equipment, will be used to gather
data on wildfires. Eight of the military's enormous C-130 transport
planes, each outfitted with firefighting gear, are being made
available for use.
Those 25 larger aircraft will be deployed around the nation,
along with six large helitankers and large helicopters and more
than 700 smaller choppers and planes.
On April 20, a P-3 air tanker crashed in Northern California,
killing all three pilots in the Lassen National Forest. The air
tanker crashed during a training flight. There has been no
indication the plane suffered structural failure in flight.
"Aerial firefighting is an inherently high-risk business,"
Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest
policy, said Thursday. "Our job is to minimize that risk."
Rey said routine inspections would being done to check "areas
of particular concern," including the chances of "catastrophic
metal fatigue" among parts of the aging aircraft.
"If we find some evidence of cracking, we'll replace the part.
But that alone shouldn't ground the aircraft," he said.
Nina Hatfield, an Interior Department deputy assistant
secretary, said the contracted aircraft is of particular help in
determining how each fire is managed.
Last year, the Forest Service and Interior Department terminated
$30 million in contracts with private companies for 33 heavy
tankers, after the National Transportation Safety Board said it
could not guarantee their airworthiness. Three such planes crashed
between 1994 and 2002, killing seven crew members.
During the 2004 season, eight P-3s were returned to service, and
three other planes were used in a limited capacity after Western
lawmakers complained the large planes were needed.
Democrat Max Baucus of Montana praised the decision Thursday.
"As we stare down the barrel of what could be another bad fire
year, having these planes at the ready is reassuring to all of us
as Montanans," he said.
Greater than expected moisture in the West could delay fire
season in the Northwest and Northern Rockies until July, officials
forecast. Difficult fires are expected at lower elevations in
southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico.
---
On the Net:
National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[budthespud]

The fleet is now at what: 60% of
original (pre-grounding) strength
...not counting post-grounding weight restrictions?

We'll run those calculations and see
whether 60% is a true number.

I suspect it's likely to drop.