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Investigative Report: 19 Firefighters Possibly Saved Had Air Tankers Responded
U.S. Forest Service tanker fleet down 75% from 44 tankers a decade ago to only 11 now. The 19 firefighters who died in the Yarnell wildfire in Arizona this summer might have survived had any of the six U.S. Forest Service air tankers requested by the state arrived on the scene, a senior fire official told ABC News. But only one plane, a Korean War vintage aircraft, was dispatched to help and it had to return to base because of engine problems. (abcnews.go.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
True that. Look how effective the two converted DC-10s have been at dumping huge amounts of retardant on fires in a single pass. I know, it costs money. But some of our desert boneyards are full of retired heavies - 10s, L1011s, 747s that could be had cheap to nearly free. We seem to have money for everything else, from extraneous wars to extraneous social programs. How about spending just a little to solve this. (Footnote: We Southern Californians feel a lot more threatened by 200,000 acre wildfires than we do by terrorists or undocumented aliens...and over the years, we've accumulated the thousands of chimneys where homes used to stand to prove it.)
Thanks for these links. Very informative.
With the Evergreen supertanker, there is little excuse to let US Forest Service tanker responsiveness drop so precipitously.
They should contract with Evergreen or build their own supertankers, with all the surplus 747s around and available cheaply.
With the Evergreen supertanker, there is little excuse to let US Forest Service tanker responsiveness drop so precipitously.
They should contract with Evergreen or build their own supertankers, with all the surplus 747s around and available cheaply.
Looks like for some politicians saving jobs comes before saving lives.
Let's send both houses of congress to go and fight the wildfires. Then we will see how fast the forest service gets their new tankers.
They might take a lesson from the Newfoundlanders that didn't go through "channels" when they needed on to put out the fire at the scene of a tanker truck crash shown here recently.
ok a few things..first Evergreens 747 is parked less two engines,shes not going to do any fire fighting.there was also a problem with the 747 and the drop pattern,which is why the contract wasnt picked up after the first attempts,it also had a problem with its speed while dropping,and the height,they need to be between 250 and 150 agl,and 130-150kts,and they couldnt do it,airtanker ten company over came the same issues and now are active.neptunes BAe-146s were parked for a short time due to retardant trail problems aswell.
but ill tell you a secret here..when Aero Union got shut down,it was over a paper work issue,i know this because the man at AU is a personal friend of mine and was responsible for said paperwork,it was done properly and legally,and approved by the FAA,yet the USFS man refused it and by his refusal that forced the FAA to also ground all the P3s,once grounded and AU was out of business,the man at the USFS quit his job and went to Lockheed martin,waited the proper time period ( theres a legal time thing) and then he,as a Lockheed martin salesman rep,proposed to the USFS and congress an program to have the USFS purchase 20-25 brand new C-130J-30's to be tanked internally and dedicated to firefighting....at this point,his plan got shot down because of the surplus C-27Js,which is also why the new generation air tanker plan is stalled and our western wildland is burning.dont believe me?....dig deep on the net..its all there.
but ill tell you a secret here..when Aero Union got shut down,it was over a paper work issue,i know this because the man at AU is a personal friend of mine and was responsible for said paperwork,it was done properly and legally,and approved by the FAA,yet the USFS man refused it and by his refusal that forced the FAA to also ground all the P3s,once grounded and AU was out of business,the man at the USFS quit his job and went to Lockheed martin,waited the proper time period ( theres a legal time thing) and then he,as a Lockheed martin salesman rep,proposed to the USFS and congress an program to have the USFS purchase 20-25 brand new C-130J-30's to be tanked internally and dedicated to firefighting....at this point,his plan got shot down because of the surplus C-27Js,which is also why the new generation air tanker plan is stalled and our western wildland is burning.dont believe me?....dig deep on the net..its all there.
http://www.evergreenaviation.com/supertanker/faq.html
http://www.evergreenaviation.com/supertanker/
http://wildfiretoday.com/2010/12/03/evergreens-747-supertanker-deployed-to-fight-fires-in-israel/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvBRWTumoZI