By Tatiana Prophet
Daily Press
Copyright 2007 Daily Press
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
VICTORVILLE, Calif. — The age of a firefighting DC-10 air tanker does not concern the chief of air operations for California's fire agency.
"We have air tankers that are older than that," said Mike Padilla, chief of aviation for CAL FIRE. "The aircraft is maintained to (FAA-required) Part 121 standards. So it's a perfectly fine and airworthy aircraft."
He added that the 31-year-old wide-body is capable of maneuvering in steep mount ain terrain.
The U.S. Forest Service has been reluctant to certify the jet, telling the Associated Press that the McDonnell Douglas aircraft was designed to fly only 67,000 hours and has passed that figure.
But Jim Jijawi, an engineer who worked for McDonnell Douglas and Boeing for 29 years, said that DC-10s can perform well past 67,000 hours and that the issue is maintenance.
"You can have a car that has 12,000 miles on it, but if you've never put any water in it or done an oil change, then you take it to Arizona and it breaks down," he said. "But if you have a car with 130,000 miles and you maintain it properly, it can go from here to Mars."
He added that FAA certification is rigorous.
"It's not like getting an airplane from some place and putting some water barrels of some type and making it fly up there," he said. "There are some restrictive rules and regulations by the federal government."
The tanker, based in Victorville and developed by a private partnership based in San Carlos, and Oklahoma, is the nation's only wide body equipped to fight fires. It made its debut in 2006 and was hired recently by CAL FIRE for an exclusive contract worth $15 million over three years.
An older plane was likely used because a new wide body costs about $200 million, said Jijawi. Then it would probably cost another $100 million to be converted into a tanker, he said.
"For fire fighting tankers, I think the concept has been really fresh in the mind of the people," he said. "It's all supply and demand — whether the Forest Service is coming forward or not and making it worthwhile for the original manufacturer to make an airplane to be used as a firefighter."
On Monday, the plane experienced damage to one of its ailerons, or flaps on the wing, when it hit some trees while dropping on the White Fire near Tehachapi.
