Aerial Firefighting 10
Aerial Firefighting 10 : Equipment: Airtankers: Category Legend: The Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia contract Air Spray Aviation to supply Twin Commander 690 as bird dog aircraft for their air tanker fleets. Air Spray owns 9 Twin Commander 690 for use as bird dog aircraft. Fleet grounding: In the United States, most of these aircraft are privately owned and contracted to government agencies, and the National Guard and the U. S. Marines also maintain fleets of firefighting aircraft. On May 10, 2004, The U. S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that they were cancelling contracts with operators of 33 heavy airtankers. They cited liability concerns and an inability to safely manage the fleet after the wing failure and resulting crash of a C-130 A Hercules in California and a PB4Y-2 in Colorado during the summer of 2002. Both aged aircraft broke up in flight due to catastrophic fatigue cracks at the wing roots. After subsequent third-party examination and extensive testing of all USFS contracted heavy airtankers, three companies were awarded contracts and now maintain a combined fleet of 23 aircraft
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