BC airtankers sought globally as wildfire season smoulders

This was the first year that really it was all hands on deck uh and all our aircraft and all our Pilots were uh we’re fighting fires all summer to actually dropped the reant we have a drop button here Mark be says this has been the busiest Wildfire season he’s

Ever seen in 40 years as a pilot but one thing that’s helped him manage it is flying these new air tankers dubbed the most modern available anywhere in the world newer avionics uh better navigation systems um the airplane’s fully pressurized uh and it has air conditioning be and his crew support

Firefighters on the ground the tanks can carry about 10,000 L of water or to slow fires down they can close and the tank the tanker can go around and do another load in a different direction another portion of the load so not all the water has to

Relase exactly in a process unique to Canada BC based Conair aerial firefighting creates these air tankers out of this hanger in abbotford BC it’s a tiny little industry we’re one of very few companies that do this around the world the company recently acquired seven commercial airplanes including from bankrupt UK Airline flybe the

Company then converts those former commercial aircrafts into air tankers it was fully loaded as a passenger aircraft so one of the first things we do is remove the interior full seats overhead bins everything you’d expect to see when you get on a commercial aircraft this will be ready to fight fires anywhere so

Uh it will be contracted um by the US Forest Service or individual states uh for next Fire season in 2024 about half of conair’s more than 90 pilots and nearly 70 aircraft are now back on base after their deployments across BC but like this crew doing the air tanker

Conversion behind me they’re showing no signs of slowing down we also have Pilots that have deployed now to Australia um so we have uh three airplanes down there this winter as well so we’re really operating uh 12 months a year now and there’s all kinds of thank

You cards in our in our crew rooms and and from the people that you know we’ve saved their their houses and and they know it they appreciate us when they see us flying the company also creates emergency response aircraft several of which have been purchased by the French

Government and used to support Aid efforts in the war on Ukraine our tagline is protecting our world you know and and that sounds yeah that sounds simplistic but really when we when we develop that tag line when we boil down everything that we do it’s about that you so it’s important

There’s a lot of Pride behind the process of bringing this aerial firefighting resource to markets across the globe nuga Global News abbottford BC

With fall in full swing and hundreds of wildfires still burning in Canada during a record-breaking fire season, a B.C.-based company is taking a unique approach to extinguishing those flames.

The strategy involves converting former commercial airplanes into firefighting aircraft.

Neetu Garcha has an inside look at how these air tankers are made, who’s using them, and the increasing international demand for modern planes.

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