Five firefighting air tankers back on duty

Five large air tankers in the federal forest firefighting fleet returned to the skies Monday after each passed a safety inspection.

Fort Worth, Texas-based DynCorp Technical Services conducted the inspections. The cleared tankers are former Navy P-3 Orion aircraft owned by Aero Union Corp. in Chico, Calif. DynCorp is inspecting three more Aero Union P-3s and reviewing safety documents from five other contractors.

It has been a roller-coaster summer for the contractors who own the tankers and the pilots who fly them. On May 10, the Forest Service and the Interior Department announced that they were canceling contracts for 33 large tankers.

The decision followed an April report by the National Transportation Safety Board that found the agencies were not meeting their responsibilities for ensuring the safety of the aircraft, which are owned and operated by eight private companies. The Forest Service and Interior Department do not have the technical expertise to evaluate the safety of the planes, and the Federal Aviation Administration does not have jurisdiction over public-use aircraft. The NTSB report investigated three tanker crashes, one in 1994 and two in 2002, which resulted from the separation of one or both wings from firefighting tankers.

Two of the three additional Aero Union P-3s could be cleared later this week, according to a spokesperson for the National Interagency Fire Center, but the remaining tankers-which are different types of aircraft-likely will take longer to evaluate. The fact that P-3s still are used in military operations made it easier to assess the Aero Union planes. The company uses the same maintenance procedures as the Navy.

"We expect it's going to be difficult to [assess] the other aircraft types," said Tony Kern, who manages the Forest Service's aerial fleet. The tankers are an average of 48 years old, and many led long lives as military aircraft before they were put to use in firefighting. In many cases, the planes' safety and inspection records are incomplete.

The tankers are most effective in initial attacks, since they can cross long distances quickly and carry large volumes of water, retardant or foam in a single trip. Once helicopters and smaller planes can be moved close to a blaze, they can refill and return to the fire much faster than the large tankers.

The Forest Service and Interior had arranged to supplement the initial attack aerial forces with as many as 46 single-engine air tankers, 71 helicopters and two CL 215 air tankers, plus up to eight military C-130 airlifters.

The agencies' decision to cancel the contracts for the 33 tankers at the beginning of the fire season sparked an outcry from Western lawmakers, who were concerned that the loss would impair efforts in what was expected to be a severe fire season. Following congressional hearings, the FAA agreed to help the Forest Service and Interior develop inspection programs. On June 9, the Forest Service hired DynCorp to analyze the planes' operations and maintenance records and inspect the planes during site visits.

DynCorp was selected in part because the company has experience with tankers; it maintains a tanker fleet for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Company inspectors do not officially certify airworthiness, but issue reports on the planes' condition based on criteria developed by the Forest Service and Interior with help from the FAA and NTSB. "They're answering questions that we believe will get us as close to full confidence in the airworthiness of the aircraft as we can get," Kern says.

Based on DynCorp's reports, the Forest Service and Interior will weigh the risks of operating the planes on a case-by-case basis. "I'm very comfortable and happy," Kern says, "with the process that's been developed to evaluate these aircraft."