File photo of Air Tanker 944 at Viru Viru International Airport in Bolivia. Global Supertanker photo.
The 747 Supertanker (GST944) has completed its assignment assisting the firefighters in Bolivia. It is scheduled to fly back to U.S. Monday night after arriving in South America on August 23.
Tanker 944 is scheduled to depart from Viru Viru Int’l (VVI) at 3:06 PM MDT Monday October 14 heading for San Bernardino International (SBD) with an estimated arrival at 12:04 AM PDT Tuesday October 15. (UPDATE: it appears the departure will be delayed, and the aircraft will probably arrive at SBD Tuesday afternoon.)
Coulson Aviation announced on August 31 that the company had secured a contract with the Bolivian Ministry of Defense to provide three Type 1 helicopters to assist the firefighters that are battling wildfires.
Shortly thereafter two of the company’s S-61 helicopters departed from California to begin a multi-day flight to South America.
On September 4 the third helicopter began its journey on a very large cargo plane from the airport at San Bernardino, California. Here’s what the company wrote on their Facebook page, along with these photos they posted:
The Coulson Unical CH-47D, N47CU, was loaded onto the Antonov An-124 this afternoon after a long night and morning of teardown. To fit in the airplane the blades, both the forward and rear drivetrain, and the rear pylon needed to be removed. This is a huge task to accomplish in such a short time but the team came through and will get some well deserved rest on the flight down.
Coulson photo.
Coulson has partnered with Unical Air, a new unit of the Unical Group of Companies to create a heavy lift helicopter joint venture company that will build and operate Boeing CH-47 and Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk aircraft for aerial firefighting and other markets. We interviewed Britt Coulson about this venture at the HAI Heli-Expo in Atlanta, March 5, 2019.
An actual photo of some of the wildfires in Bolivia, as seen from the 747 Supertanker. It was posted by Global Supertanker August 24, 2019.
According to an article at CNN, “Some of the most-shared images of the Amazon rainforest fires are old or are not of the Amazon”. Their article includes many examples of incorrectly attributed photos.
One of the most glaring examples is very familiar to many wildland firefighters and is often called the “Elk Bath” photo (below). It was taken August 6, 2000 by John McColgan, a Forest Service employee who was assigned as a Fire Behavior Analyst on a fire in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana. It was taken as part of his official duties and is in the public domain.
Elk Bath photo, taken August 6, 2000 by John McColgan, a Forest Service employee who was assigned as a Fire Behavior Analyst on a fire in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana.
Below is where the Elk Bath photo was posted on Twitter. It is at the bottom-right. The top-right photo, according to CNN is from a 2018 wildfire in Sweden.
Only found out on twitter that Amazon rainforest, ‘the earth’s lungs’ has been burning for 3 weeks?! Why is there no media coverage about it? HEARTBREAKING. #PrayforAmazonia ?? pic.twitter.com/JYwWnAPmom
The photo at the top of this article is a legitimate photo of some of the fires in Bolivia, as seen from the 747 Supertanker. It was posted by Global Supertanker August 24, 2019. The air tanker arrived in Bolivia at 1:37 a.m. local time Friday August 23 at Viru Viru International Airport outside the capital city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and began sorties on fires later in the day.
The two photos below do not show fires, but they were also taken from the 747 Supertanker showing scenes in Bolivia. They might give us a glimpse of some of the fuels and terrain involved.
Taken from the 747 Supertanker in Bolivia and posted August 24, 2019. Global Supertanker photo. Taken from the 747 Supertanker in Bolivia and posted August 24, 2019. Global Supertanker photo.
Air Tanker 944 at Viru Viru International Airport in Bolivia. Global Supertanker photo.
The 747 Supertanker arrived in Bolivia at 1:37 a.m. local time Friday August 23 at Viru Viru International Airport outside the capital city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and began sorties on fires later in the day.
It appears from the photos above that the method of filling the 19,200-gallon tank may be similar to that used in 2017 when the 747 was working on fires in Chile. In that case there was no robust infrastructure for the distribution of water, so the Santiago Fire Department established a system of portable water tanks filled by water trucks. Fire engines then pumped water from the tanks to the aircraft.
Firefighters in Chile created a system to fill the 19,200-gallon tank on the 747 Supertanker in Chile. Photo by Bill Gabbert, January 25, 2017.
747 Supertanker taking off at McClellan Air Field March 24, 2016.
(UPDATED at 6:48 a.m. PDT August 23, 2019)
Air Tanker 944, the 747 Supertanker, arrived in Bolivia overnight to assist firefighters who are battling numerous wildfires across the country. It landed at 1:37 a.m. local time Friday at Viru Viru International Airport outside the capital city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
It departed from Sacramento McClellan Airport and flew non-stop at 39,000 feet at 510 to 610 mph.
Air tankers do not put out vegetation fires. However under ideal conditions, especially slow to moderate wind speeds, they can retard the spread of a fire for a period of time allowing firefighters on the ground to move in and actually suppress the fire. If there are no ground forces in the area, the effect of an air tanker dropping water or fire retardant is temporary. The fire can often eventually burn through or around the area where the liquid was applied. During strong winds, the retardant is blown off target and burning embers can travel a mile downwind and start spot fires.
(Originally published at 10:24 PDT August 22, 2019)
The huge air tanker, identified as Tanker 944, that can carry up to 19,200 gallons (72,680 liters) of water or fire retardant is scheduled to depart from Sacramento McClellan Airport at 10:45 a.m. PDT Thursday and arrive in Viru Viru International Airport in Bolivia at about 6:42 p.m. local time.
The aircraft is being leased from Global Supertanker. According to laRazón, the company required an up front guarantee of $800,000 US dollars.
The first drop it made on an actual fire was in Spain in July 2009 while on a world tour to introduce the aircraft to wildland firefighters. Later on that trip it dropped retardant on the Railbelt Complex in Alaska. At that time the aircraft was operated by Evergreen. Since then it has been purchased by Global Supertanker and upgraded from a 747-100 to a 747-400, but the retardant delivery system is essentially the same.
The 747 SuperTanker drops on the Palmer Fire south of Calimesa and Yucaipa in southern California, September 2, 2017. Photo by Cy Phenice, used with permission.
The article was edited to show that the 747 is scheduled to go to Bolivia, not Brazil.
Map showing heat (the red dots) and smoke in Bolivia and Brazil detected by a satellite August 14, 2019. Click to enlarge.
Smoke from hundreds of fires in the Amazon Basin combined with clouds Monday afternoon to plunge a major South American city into darkness.
Numerous fires in Bolivia and the Amazon Basin in Brazil have been creating smoke in recent days that got pushed hundreds of miles by a cold front to Sao Paulo, turning the sky dark.
Below is an excerpt from an article in the Washington Post:
“The smoke [Monday] didn’t come from fires in the state of Sao Paulo, but from very dense and wide fires that have been happening for several days in [the state of] Rondonia and Bolivia,” Josélia Pegorim, a meteorologist with Climatempo, said in an interview with Globo. “The cold front changed direction and its winds transported the smoke to Sao Paulo.”
The news highlighted the number of forest fires in Brazil, which rose by more than 80 percent this year, according to data released this week by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
“This central Brazil and south of the Amazon Rainforest region has been undergoing a prolonged drought,” Alberto Setzer, a researcher at INPE, said in an interview with local media outlets. “And there are some places where there has not fallen a drop of rain for three months.”
Most of the Amazon was once considered fireproof, but as climate change and deforestation remake the world, wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity, recent research has shown.
In the Amazon region, according to NASA, fires are rare for much of the year because wet weather prevents them from starting and spreading. However, in July and August, activity typically increases due to the arrival of the dry season. Many people use fire to maintain farmland and pastures or to clear land for other purposes. Typically, activity peaks in early September and mostly stops by November.
The map above, showing heat and smoke in Brazil and Bolivia on August 14, is the best we could find. More recent satellite imagery has either clouds, or smoke so dense over very large areas that smoke from individual fires couldn’t be distinguished from smoke covering very large areas.
