One of our loyal readers, Lone Ranger, has alerted us to something he found on Google Earth while researching the Esperanza Fire — a satellite photo of a P2V air tanker flying over the fire, perhaps about to make a drop along a dozer line. Or, maybe it’s just orbiting. I was not able to find a shadow of the aircraft so it’s difficult to determine how far he was above the ground.

To check it out yourself, in Google Earth search for 33.844446 -116.845768

At the bottom-left, click on the year. That will cause a slider to appear at the upper left. Drag the slider over to 10/26/2006, then zoom in.