Expect air tanker plan next year, reps told

Kevin Vaughan And M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 12, 2006 at midnight

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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Forest Service expects by next spring to have a long-term plan for modernizing the nation's depleted fleet of heavy air tankers, a top federal official assured two Colorado congressmen Thursday.

Mark Ray, undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment, also told U.S. Reps. Mark Udall and John Salazar, both Democrats, that the Forest Service was ready for the looming summer wildfire season - even with just one third the heavy air tankers it had a few years ago.

Udall and Salazar requested the meeting because they were concerned about the federal government's ability to fight summer wildfires.

"I'm satisfied by what Secretary Ray shared with us," Udall said after the meeting. "When the fire season starts, wherever it starts, that will provide us with an indication about whether they're truly ready."

The Forest Service has begun using more single-engine air tankers and heavy-lift helicopters to help make up for the lost capacity.

The trouble started in the summer of 2002 when air tankers crashed in California and Colorado, killing five airmen. In both cases, wings snapped in mid-flight.

A panel of aviation experts organized to examine the system issued a report in December 2002 calling for sweeping changes in a system it concluded was "unsustainable."

Udall and Salazar requested Thursday's meeting after the Rocky Mountain News reported that nearly four years after those deadly crashes the fleet of large air tankers had dwindled from more than 40 planes to 16 and that there was no concrete plan for updating and modernizing the system.

The planes scheduled to fly this summer are, on average, 41 years old, according to federal records.

Members of the panel have been critical in recent months of what they perceived to be a lack of progress toward developing a new fleet.

But Ray told Udall and Salazar that a plan will be ready by the spring of 2007.

"Their plan is to fully review the options and in about 10 months, next winter, they plan to release their findings and their plan for the future," Udall said. "That not only would answer the questions of, do we move to a federal fleet rather than a private fleet, but what sorts of aircraft should be in the mix."

Under the current system, private companies own the air tankers and operate them under contract to the federal government. Some have suggested that the federal government take over ownership of the air-tanker fleet.

"There's a legitimate debate about whether the air tanker fleet should be owned and maintained by the federal government," Udall said. "I haven't made up my mind."

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