Airtankers and helicopters on federal contracts are a national resource. While most of these firefighting aircraft and lead aircraft work in the western United States, any State Forest Service can request the help of these firefighting aircraft. I try to pay attention to when any airtankers are working wildfires on the east coast. I wrote about Super Scoopers from Bridger Aerospace helping out in North Carolina on March 31 Today I am focusing on large airtankers that helped fight these wildfires. I am grateful to see that both Neptune Aviation Services and !0 Tanker Air Carrier recently worked wildfires that burned in North and South Carolina. While I have read that there were numerous helicopters with buckets working these fires and helicopters can do a lot of good in helping the wildland firefighters on the ground, it is always helpful to have the help of larger airtankers such as those from 10 Tanker Air Carrier and Neptune Aviation. I am glad that both companies had large airtankers available to help out both states. Neptune Aviation’s Bae-146 can drop up to 3,000 gallons of retardant and 10 Tankers DC-10’s can drop up to 9,400 gallons of retardant.
Note: I embedded two images from Facebook below this paragraph, one from the North Carolina Forest Service showing a BAe0-146 airtanker from Neptune Aviation's working a wildfire and the other from 10 Tanker. If you can not see these images, either because you are using a cellphone or for other reasons, Neptune Aviation’s post may be found here, and 10 Tanker’s post may be found on this page.
