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U.S. investigators have yet to say if the latest crash of an old military-surplus air tanker was again due to structural failure, but the Forest Service will use P-3 airplanes during fire season in California nevertheless, officials have acknowledged.
Meanwhile, two companies developing huge air tankers out of former 747 and DC-10 airliners are clamoring for attention in hopes of landing federal
contracts to replace the aging P-3s and others - an uncertain prospect.
In another development, one involving the ground battle against wildfires, federal officials acknowledged that many of the 5,000 firefighters employed by private firms that contract with the U.S. government are immigrants, with an untold number working illegally.
Officials said they are uncertain whether the current immigration debate will affect the size of the overall federal firefighting force. Authorities said they will work with other federal agencies to improve the process of identifying violators.
A major component of the firefighting force centers on aircraft. But the National Transportation Safety Board has not completed its probe into the crash of a former Navy P-3 patrol airplane in April 2005 in Northern California.
Board officials declined to comment regarding the ongoing investigation.
But the U.S. Forest Service, whose heavy air tankers play a major role in any large California blaze, plans to contract for use of 16 four-engine P-3s and other fixed-wing aircraft, said Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Idaho.
Davis said she believes that the Forest Service would have heard from the NTSB if there was something we needed to know.
At the same time, however, Davis said she, like the safetyboard, isnt ruling out the possibility of structural failure in the deadly crash of the P-3 in April 2005 near Chico. I will wait and see, she said.
The in-flight breakup of other types of aging, large military planes, converted to air tankers, forced a cutback in the federal firefighting fleet in 2004 and permanent groundings.
The 2006 fleet of 16 large planes, which is short due to a lack of replacement military surplus planes, will be less than half the size it was two years ago.
The U.S. Forest Service and Aero Union Corp. of Chico, one of the federal air tanker contractors, has asserted that there is no indication of a
breakup in the 2004 P-3 crash, based on initial NTSB findings.
Al Ross, director of Washington operations for Aero Union, said a breakup is very unlikely. The NTSB did not rule out Tanker 26 being struck by a meteor
either, but that doesnt make it any more likely as a cause factor, he said.Federal and state air tankers will again face the possibility of a disastrous fire season in California - a threat that perennially hangs over the arid state.
The California Department of Forestry was plagued by crashes of its medium-sized, military-surplus airplanes for decades until a public spotlight
on the problem in the early 1990s led to multimillion-dollar upgrades on each airplane.
The state now has a fleet of about 20 former Navy S-2 patrol planes, fitted with fast turbine engines, which is considered the premiere firefighting air
fleet in the world.
In the scramble to fill the void created by aging of the propeller-driven federal military-surplus fleet, two companies hope big jets may go to work
on wildfires this summer.
Two companies, one with a DC-10 and the other with a Boeing 747, are lobbying for contracts.
Evergreen International Aviation of Oregon is spending$40 million to equip a 747 to battle blazes. At the same time, a DC-10 backed by an Oklahoma company has been fitted with a tank built by an Oregon firm.
We certainly have the door open to new ideas, and these are the first two serious ones weve seen, Davis said.
The two carry up to 24,000 gallons of retardant, eight times the amount of a single P-3.
Officials said the super jets would be restricted to more open areas and supplement, rather than replace, medium-sized tankers that can better
maneuver in rough terrain.

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