The National Transportation Safety Board’s forum on the oversight of public aircraft is underway in Washington, D.C. You can view a live stream of the event at the NTSB web site. I could not get the Windows Media Player version to work, but the Flash Player is working fine.
HERE is more information about the forum, and how it may affect the use of firefighting aircraft operated by government agencies.
We will view it occasionally today and tomorrow and will post updates below. If you are watching it, let us know what your impressions are.
The agenda lists the following individuals that are scheduled to represent land management agencies:
- William Payne, California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Prevention
- Tom Short, Los Angeles County Fire Department
- Arthur Hinaman, U.S. Forest Service
- Keith Raley, U.S. Department of Interior
- Harlan Johnson, U.S. Department of Interior
Contractors scheduled to speak:
- Mark Gibson, Timberland Logging
- Dan Snyder, Neptune Aviation
- Brian Beattie, Croman Corporation
- Richard Fischer, National Security Technologies
Below is the agenda, and our comments about the ongoing forum.
Quotes from William Payne of CAL FIRE during the 0915-1045 Wednesday section:
Every time you’re flying over ground that’s on fire, you’re already behind the eight ball.
We’re in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to develop more in-depth checklists.
In response to a statement from William Payne that CAL FIRE has reported to the FAA serious issues involving public aircraft, Karen Petronis of the FAA said:
The FAA has no enforcement authority over public aircraft operations. The worst we can do is to send a stern letter.
There was a discussion during which Chairperson Hersman asked the CAL FIRE and FAA representatives about transporting firefighters from point A to point B using a helicopter, and whether that was a public aircraft or civil aircraft operation. The two representatives both said it was a public operation. Hersman then asked the FAA representative if a helicopter was transporting NTSB investigators to an accident scene, if that was a public or civil flight. The FAA representative said it would be civil. Hersman stated that this was an example of the confusion that exists around this issue. Then after a brief mention of the Iron Complex fire fatalities, the forum took a break and was scheduled to begin the next panel at 11:15 ET.
During the next session there was not much that was related to firefighting aircraft. They broke for lunch and will resume at 1:35 ET when three panel members from the FAA will discuss the role of the FAA in the oversight of public aircraft for 1.5 hours.
