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The CAL FIRE Aviation Management Program is a branch of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (known also as CAL FIRE). Due to the frequency and severity of wildfires in California , the state has elected to establish its own aerial firefighting force rather than rely solely on contract or national resources.
The pilots who man these aircraft are known as aerial firefighting pilots, or waterbombers. Mixon says pilots are from different backgrounds, but many previously served in the military.
As Los Angeles residents fled an insatiable inferno in Pacific Palisades last week, aerial firefighter Diego Calderoni was plunging towards the flames at about 170 mph (275 kph) in a DC-10 jet.
But recent fire seasons have shattered records for the largest, deadliest and most destructive fires in California, and 2024’s fire season is already more active than the year-to-date average of ...
Aerial firefighting, also known as waterbombing, is the use of aircraft and other aerial resources to combat wildfires. The types of aircraft used include fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters . Smokejumpers and rappellers are also classified as aerial firefighters, delivered to the fire by parachute from a variety of fixed-wing aircraft , or ...
The DC-10 Air Tanker is a series of American wide-body jet air tankers, which have been in service as an aerial firefighting unit since 2006. [1] The aircraft, operated by the joint technical venture 10 Tanker Air Carrier, are converted wide-body McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 passenger jetliners, and are primarily used to fight wildfires, typically in rural areas.
Since 1974, using the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) units supplied by the U.S. Forest Service and mounted in four C-130s, the wing's aerial fire fighting crews have been credited with saving many lives and countless millions of dollars worth of structures, forests, and brush land in California, and many other States and ...
Aerial firefighting is "the closest thing to combat flying you'll find in civilian life," says Montie Vanlandingham, a retired chief pilot for the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District who spent ...