A Tough Year for Air Tankers and Wildfires

Deadly crashes raise doubts about the wisdom of battling burning forests from the air

"You can put out a fire with no airplanes, but you can't put out a fire with only airplanes" — Tom Harbour, director of fire and aviation management, U.S. Forest ServicePhotograph by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post/Polaris

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By Bryant Urstadt

July 19, 2012 at 11:00 PM UTC

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This article is part of the July 23, 2012 issue of businessweek.

The first air tanker to crash this year fighting the wildfires in the West was a Lockheed P2V-7, owned and operated by Neptune Aviation Services, a private government contractor based in Missoula, Mont. The planes were designed as bombers during World War II and look it, with a shiny aluminum fuselage and wings, a hatch that opens over the cockpit accessed by ladder, and a glass observation window in the nose. The last were made in 1962. Witnesses to the June 3 crash in Utah saw the tanker hit a tree and cartwheel into the rising side of the valley. Both aboard died.

It’s been a dramatic year for fires, and a tragic year for aerial firefighters. Three planes have crashed since June, with six dead, raising questions about whether the government should be using newer, more advanced craft—and whether they should be fighting fires from the air at all.