Port mulling base for big firefighting planes
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 6 months AGO
Casey McCarthy/Columbia Basin Herald An Erickson Tanker MD-87 sitting at the U.S. Forest Service's Moses Lake Air Tanker Base. The plane is capable of carrying 3,000 gallons of water, foam or other fire retardants, and is one of five MD-87 jets the company uses to fight wildfires across the west.
MOSES LAKE — The Port of Moses Lake is considering what it would take to become a base for very large firefighting aircraft, including a converted a Boeing 747 used to fight fires.
“Wildfires are a hot topic, and as fires grow, so do the size of the aircraft,” said Rich Mueller, Director of Grant County International Airport, during a study session prior to a regular Monday meeting of the Port Commission.
The Grant County International Airport already hosts a U.S. Forest Service tanker base between the old B-52 alert pads — currently a parking lot for dozens of grounded 737 MAX aircraft — and Genie’s lift production facility.
Mueller said the Colorado-based company Global Supertanker is talking with AeroTEC about the possibility of modifying at least one more 747 aircraft for use as a tanker and firefighting aircraft. AeroTEC is currently modifying a 747 as an engine testing platform for Rolls Royce.
“This may be a chance to attract a very large tanker here,” Mueller said.
“The owner very much wants to base here,” added Port Director Don Kersey.
Colorado-based Global Supertanker operates one 747-400 modified to carry and release 18,000-21,000 gallons of water or fire retardant, depending on how wide the spray is, from 200-300 feet above ground. The plane has been used to combat fires as far away as Israel and Brazil’s Amazon rain forest.
The company was contacted for this story, but did not return comment prior to publication time.
Mueller said the current Forest Service tanker base is host to “six or seven” tanker aircraft — including, occasionally, a DC-10 — which have been busy during the last few days helping fire fighters to battle the Colockum Fire south of Wenatchee in Chelan County.
“With 100-degree heat, they will get nothing but busier,” Mueller said.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com
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