AF Moves to Fix Firefighting Planes

[unhappycamper]

AF Moves to Fix Firefighting Planes
Associated Press | October 27, 2007


WASHINGTON - A top military commander said Friday he will push the Air Force to move faster to get firefighting cargo planes fitted with new tanks after some flights to fight the California wildfires were stalled.

Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, who heads U.S. Northern Command, said efforts to outfit the California National Guard's C-130 cargo planes with new tanks must be accelerated. He said he is working with the Air Force so the new tanks can be in place by early fall of 2008, before the next fire season begins.

"Hopefully, because of what we've learned, we will be able to move it along more rapidly," Renuart said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

An AP investigation this week found that two C-130 cargo planes sat idle as flames spread across Southern California, grounded because they had yet to be outfitted with tanks needed to carry thousands of gallons of fire retardant, though that was promised four years ago.

Six of the C-130 cargo aircraft from other parts of the country had to be brought in by the military because the California planes could not be used.

Renuart said the Air Force has been working to get the newer models of tanks installed and certified on the West Coast aircraft. But he blamed a large part of the delay in getting other C-130s in the air on high winds and 90 mph gusts that made flying the planes unsafe.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,154933,00.html?wh=wh