Wildfire helicopter water buckets State, feds close to resolving wildfire helicopter bucket dispute
Federal and state firefighters appear to have fixed a problem that left some Montana helicopters off the call list for initial attack missions this wildfire season.
“They found our operations to be safe and effective,” state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation director John Tubbs said of a federal inspection team’s analysis of five modified helicopters Montana uses for water-drops on forest fires. “They still have some rule changes necessary on the federal side for them to fully engage our helicopters in future fires.”
The problem surfaced a year ago, when U.S. Department of Agriculture officials informed DNRC that the five helicopters were carrying water buckets larger than federal standards allowed.
Federal aviation programs had tightened the rules after a 2008 crash that killed eight firefighters and injured four more was caused by the private contractor’s falsifying the helicopter’s weight and performance capabilities.
“In 2011, they issued a bulletin to all federal firefighting agencies that limited contracted helicopters to certain requirements on weight and altitude and temperatures for flying,” Tubbs said. “That went to the federal agencies, but we weren’t ever a part of it.”
In that time, DNRC engineers had modified five federal surplus Huey 205 helicopters with new jet engines, stronger tail booms and more powerful tail rotors.
That allowed the helicopters to carry 324-gallon buckets, compared to the 200-gallon buckets the original versions of the Huey 205 lifted.
“They (the federal inspectors) applied a restriction that would reduce the weight we could carry, based on a non-modified Huey 205 with original engine and tail configuration,” Tubbs said. “We’d spent a lot of money building this helicopter, and were resistant to reducing our capacity based on a chart that didn’t apply to our aircraft. Only the state of Montana flies this particular aircraft.”
State and federal firefighters divide initial attack responsibilities, in part according to which agency has the closest resources to a fire start.
But because of the new federal rules, U.S. Forest Service dispatchers declined to call the Montana helicopters for fires on federal land, even when the state aircraft might have been closest.
“That may have been 10 percent of our business, but that might have been an important 10 percent,” Tubbs said. “We flew thousands of hours of missions this year (on state land fires). We didn’t want to reduce our effectiveness for 90 percent of what we do for that other 10 percent.”
The federal review completed last week confirmed an independent engineer’s analysis that the state of Montana's helicopters were operating within their capacity.
On Friday, USDA Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment Robert Bonnie said the issue was close to resolution.
"Extensive meetings between Forest Service aviation experts and Montana DNRC were a strong first step in reaching resolution to the issue of utilization of DNRC helicopters for initial attack firefighting operations on Forest Service lands,” Bonnie said in an email statement. “Through those meetings, a USDA and state aviation panel has determined the DNRC has designed a safe aviation program; however, as presently operated, the Montana program does not currently meet federal policies and guidelines for initial attack on Forest Service lands.”
Bonnie added that the state and federal officials would continue to work on a broadening of federal guidelines so Montana’s modified Hueys can rejoin the federal flight list.
“We didn’t want people to say our aircraft were unsafe, and this confirms we were correct,” Tubbs said. “We spent $10.5 million on firefighting this year. We did well. It could have been much more expensive.”