Scooper air tanker drops on a truck fire in Canada

Here is a fun clip of a Canadian Forestry Scooper aircraft dropping a load on a semi which had crashed into a motor grader in northern Canada. Apparently, the plane was called in to prevent the fire from the burning truck spreading further into the woods. Nice work, Eh! Video link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZkV64GJihA (fireaviation.com) More...

Northern California "Rim" fire MAFFS # 6 drops retardant

There was a post of MAFFS # 4 dropping on this fire several days ago; this is MAFFS # 6. As the Blogger notes " The first one has spectacular views of the fire from a vantage point seen by very few people. If you only watch one, watch the first one. This also addresses the aural "landing Gear" warning which Lockheed hopes to have an override option. (fireaviation.com) More...

Pilot shot himself before crash at Bullhead City, Az airport

Authorities are saying a pilot shot himself before crashing at Bullhead City, Az airport (www.azfamily.com) More...

Here's another great DC-10 firefighting tanker making a precision drop

This fire located near Globe,AZ in 2013 was burning in high timber and was about 7-10 acres in size. The Air Attack called for Tanker 911, to hit the fire with just a small portion of its load. The audio.is between the lead plane and Tanker 911. Also , the short burst of smoke the lead plane makes to indicate to the Tanker where to drop the load of retardant. (m.youtube.com) More...

Plane makes emergency landing on northern Arizona highway

Arizoha DPS said a pilot landed a small plane a Hwy 64, just south of the Grand Canyon (kpho.m0bl.net) More...

C-130 MAFFS Air Tanker goes down in South Dakota

A C-130 crashed while fighting the White Draw fire near Edge,ont S.D. (rapidcityjournal.com) More...

State of Montana DNRC fire fighting Helicopter controversy.

An ongoing battle between the State of Montana DNRC and the U.S. Forest Service over their helicopters which are used for fire fighting on state lands, but are banned from Federal lands due to non-compliance. This was originally posted by several private helicopter operators from Montana (fireaviation.com) More...

VLAT drops on a small 7 acre fire in Arizona

Most of us have seen videos of the DC-10 air tankers dropping massive loads of retardant stretched out over thousands of feet of fireline, as seen in this excellent video by Tim Walton, or this one on the Lost Fire, but the video below is very different. It shows Tanker 911 dropping a very small fraction of its 11,600-gallon load on a seven-acre fire below Pinal Peak near Globe, Arizona (fireaviation.com) More...

Helicopter crashes south of the Grand Canyon

A local pilot was injured in what is being described as a hard landing after reporting problems with the aircraft's transmission. This occurred approximently 3 miles west of the Valle, Arizona airport; located south of the Grand Canyon. (azdailysun.com) More...

Helicopter fighting Scotts fire malfunctions, extracted by Chinook

A California National Guard Blackhawk helicopter that was working on the Scotts Fire east of Ukiah, California had to make a precautionary landing Friday, September 7 when a warning light came on. It set down on private land and was unable to be repaired on the site. It was not accessible to a flat bed truck that could haul it away so the National Guard brought in a Chinook helicopter which extracted the Blackhawk. (wildfiretoday.com) More...