Osprey’s rotor wash injures 10 in NYC park

This morning a V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft being demonstrated by the U. S. Marine Corp at a Staten Island park near New York City injured 10 spectators when the rotor wash sent debris flying. In the video below (link) you can see that the Osprey was flying slowly and at very low altitude over some trees when some large tree branches were broken off and smaller ones became projectiles along with other debris and dirt from an athletic field. Ten spectators were injured, and seven were transported to hospitals.

HERE is a link to another video of the incident.

On January 3, we wrote about this vertical take-off and landing aircraft replacing some of the Vietnam era CH-46E Sea Knight and CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters used by the Marine Corps, which are occasionally used for dropping water on wildfires. But the Osprey has never dropped a gallon of water on a fire, most likely due to the tremendous rotor wash generated by the huge propellers or rotors, and the very high-temperature exhaust that is directed down to the ground when the rotors are tilted in order to create lift. The exhaust has started wildfires, which would be at odds with a fire suppression mission objective.

Osprey. USAF photo
V-22 Osprey. USAF file photo.

The Osprey has a checkered past, having been involved in numerous crashes and incidents including one in 1992 when an onboard fire caused the aircraft to drop into the Potomac River in front of an audience of Congresspersons and other government officials at Quantico, Virginia, killing all seven crewmen and grounding the aircraft for 11 months. The most recent crash was on April 9, 2010 in Afghanistan, killing four. It was reported that the pilot flew too low in a brownout caused by the rotor wash, and struck a hill.

Smoke across New England

smoke map
Smoke map, May 31, 2010. NOAA

Residents of New England are getting some extra smoke with their Memorial Day barbecues today, thanks to wildfires in Quebec, where over 50 fires are burning across the province. Normally the prevailing southwest wind would blow the Quebec smoke over Newfoundland but today a northwest wind is fouling the New England air and prompting some residents to call emergency numbers to report a fire.

smoke in new england
Smoke in Nantucket. Photo: Nicole Harnishfeger

CalFire admits their brush piles ignited 485-acre Loma fire

CalFire has admitted that embers from their brush pile burning operation ignited the 485-acre Loma fire on October 25 in Santa Cruz County, California. The piles had been lit nine days previously, had lines around them, and had been doused with water from fire engines, but the wildfire damaged or destroyed a mobile home, seven outbuildings, four recreational vehicles, and one car. At least 1,700 firefighters worked on the fire, which cost $1.4 million to suppress.

A new air tanker?

new air tanker

This photo appeared at FlightAware, having been uploaded there on May 15. Could this be the project that Minden is working on, converting a BAe 146-200 into an air tanker that we told you about on March 28? According to the flight tracker at FlightAware, this aircraft, N146FF, last landed on May 15, at Missoula, but there is a rumor that it was at another airport yesterday.

UPDATE May 27

Wildfire Today has confirmed that Tanker 40 is Neptune Aviation’s BAe-146 conversion, which further explains why it was last reported landing at Missoula, the home of Neptune.

Minden’s BAe-146 conversion, Tanker 46, is currently at Fox Field in southern California.

So there are two or three BAe-146 conversion projects currently nearing completion:

  1. Minden’s,
  2. Neptune’s, and
  3. Tronos. (which may be the one that Neptune has)

But keep in mind, before any air tanker can contract with a federal agency in the United States they will have to get a Supplemental Type Certificate from the FAA, as well as certification from the Interagency Air Tanker Board.

Below is the photo that we ran on March 28 of the Tronos project.

BAe-146 air tanker
BAe-146-200 makes its first drop on October 28, 2009. Tronos photo.

UPDATE July 15, 2010

We just want to summarize the information we have. It appears there are two BAe-146 air tanker conversion projects underway:

  1. Neptune, at Missoula, MT: Tanker 40, N146FF (formerly N608AW), serial #E2049, registration issued May 12, 2010, airworthiness issued May 23, 2010; owner: Aircraft Holdings Network Inc trustee, Las Vegas, NV. This aircraft was apparently converted by Tronos.
  2. Minden, at Minden, NV; Tanker 46, N446MA, serial #E2111, registration and airworthiness issued May 26, 2010; owner: Minden Air Corp, Minden, NV

The winner of the photo caption contest

Posted on Categories Uncategorized
Winner of caption contest
Judy van Aswegen and her contest prize

As you may remember, one of the rules of the photo caption contest was that the winner must send us a photo of the prize, the Wildfire Today ceramic mug, at their place of work. We are pleased that the winner, Judy van Aswegen, complied with the rules and sent us the above photo.

Here is what Judy does at her place of work, in her own words:

I am a self-employed software developer (http://www.preceptorsoft.com/), mostly concerned with systems analysis, information architecture, and user interface design. This led to my involvement with Firebreak Equipment (http://www.firebreak.co.za/NA/), and my ongoing interest in wildfire management. I marketed Firebreak Equipment’s Blackline Burner in North America. The FWS at the Huron WMD, SD conducted trials of the equipment in October 2007. (I recently received news that the Blackline Burner performed well putting down blacklines in the Bowdoin NWR, MN in April this year.

Congratulations again to Judy, and thanks for the great caption. And thanks to the other 56 people that submitted entries to the contest.

Night flying helicopters discussed in Senate hearing

Did anyone see the hearing conducted by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior this morning? The agenda was supposed to be “Examination of the firefighting policy with U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Interior”. The following report by 89.3 KPPC Southern California Public Radio concentrates on the use of night flying helicopters for fire suppression, as did other reports.

The U.S. Forest Service won’t deploy night-flying aircraft to fight fires before the end of Southern California’s traditional fire season.

The Forest Service has maintained a ban on fighting fires by air after dark since a helicopter crash back in 1977. Critics say that if the agency had allowed water-tanker planes in the air after dark, that equipment might have stopped last summer’s deadly Station Fire much sooner.

At a U.S. Senate hearing, Forest Service officials said they’re reconsidering the ban on night time aerial firefighting. The problem is that the Service doesn’t have the technology to do it. Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of Burbank says they “no longer have the night time flying goggles or the equipment in the helicopter to be able to use them.”

Schiff was invited by his California colleague Senator Dianne Feinstein to join senators who questioned the Forest Service’s night time ban. Schiff says the Service is considering two options.

“One is to acquire the capability in house. Another is to work with some of their cooperators — which is what they call L.A. County, L.A. City, that already have the capacity. Whether they should basically contract with them.”

The problem is that local governments have their own equipment challenges. Last summer, a Los Angeles County helicopter was in the air, fighting the Station Fire after dark until a medical emergency diverted the chopper from the fire scene.

If the Forest Service lifts its ban, the earliest it could have aircraft ready to fly at night would be November, well into the Southland’s wildfire season.

UPDATE:

Here is an excerpt from the LA Times’ coverage of the hearing:

The head of the U.S. Forest Service told a Senate panel Wednesday that water-dropping helicopters would have been deployed during the critical first night of last summer’s disastrous Station blaze if they had been available and that the agency is considering ending its decades-long ban on using federal firefighting aircraft after dark.

Under pointed questioning by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell also defended the agency’s handling of the fire the next morning, when a heavy air assault did not begin until several hours after daylight. He said aircraft alone would not have stopped the flames from raging out of control.

But Schiff expressed doubt that an earlier air attack on Day 2 would have been ineffective because of steep terrain, as the Forest Service determined in November after an internal review.

“The conclusion that it would not have helped anyway is a little too facile,” he said.

Feinstein, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that held Wednesday’s hearing, said equipping the Forest Service with night-flying aircraft is a “real priority,” especially in California. She said global warming and enduring droughts have heightened the danger of huge wildfires that threaten neighborhoods.

“Fires are not going to get better, they’re going to get worse,” she said.