Five large air tankers that had been grounded over safety concerns will be back fighting fires Monday now that their private operator has demonstrated they are safe to fly, federal officials said Friday.
The five planes, former Navy P-3 Orions owned by California-based Aero Union Corp., were among 33 planes grounded in May because officials had no way to tell if the military surplus planes — some of which are as old as 60 years — were safe.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other officials said Friday that after working with the Federal Aviation Administration and a private contractor that inspected the planes, officials were confident the air tankers being returned to service were safe.
“With better information and a precedent set for more thorough inspections by the contractors, we believe we can operate this equipment safely this fire season,” Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said.
No decisions have been made about where the planes will be based or deployed, Bosworth and Norton said.
Two planes broke up in midair
The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management canceled $30 million in contracts for use of the large air tankers in May, citing safety concerns after two planes broke up in midair in 2002, killing five people.
Since then, lawmakers and governors in Western states have pressed officials to reconsider their decision, calling the large air tankers — which are capable of dumping up to 3,000 gallons of chemical and water-based retardant — vital to firefighting efforts.
“Getting these planes back in the air and working to squelch wildfires is very good news, especially since we continue to have fires pop up all over the West,” said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. “The need for aerial assaults on these fires is clearly evident, and the more planes and helicopters we can get safely into the air the better.”
Norton said the planes being returned will be under strict observation and will have limits placed on them. For instance, each plane will hold a maximum of 2,650 gallons of retardant and will have its flight hours and usage strictly monitored, she said.
More may return to service
More tankers owned by other companies also may be returned to service after Texas-based DynCorp Technical Services, the government’s contractor on plane inspections, completes reports on them, Norton said. DynCorp is completing a report on planes owned by Montana-based Neptune Aviation Services, and will then inspect planes owned by Oregon-based Butler Aircraft and Nevada-based Minden Air Corp., officials said.
Mark Rey, the Agriculture undersecretary who directs U.S. forest policy, called the return of the large air tankers a plus, but said a reconfigured fleet of smaller planes and helicopters has been as successful in fighting fires as the 33 large tankers were last year.
In Arizona and New Mexico, more than 99 percent of fires have been stopped with an initial air and ground attack, Rey said — about the same as last year, despite drier fire conditions that have sparked hundreds more wildfires.
The Forest Service added nearly 130 aircraft to its 700-plane fleet last month, at an estimated cost of $66 million. Eight military C-130 aircraft also will be used to fight fires this summer.
Without the air tankers, the Forest Service has been relying more on smaller single-engine air tankers — basically retrofitted crop-dusters — one of which crashed last month in Utah, killing the pilot.
