Summary
A drone collision grounded one of two Super Scooper planes battling Los Angeles wildfires, leaving a critical resource unavailable.
The collision damaged the aircraft’s wing, forcing its grounding, and temporarily paused other firefighting flights, creating significant delays.
The FAA emphasized the dangers of flying drones near wildfires, noting it’s a federal crime with penalties up to $75,000 and prison time.
Over 36,000 acres have burned, with officials warning that delays in air support allow wildfires to spread rapidly, endangering lives and property.
Detailed fire tracking. From the ground, it’s difficult to tell if the fires is wrapping around you etc. By getting a bit of altitude, you can see what’s going on, and act accordingly.
There are other options. Heck, fire bombers usually are accompanied by their own sorter aircraft.
It’s likely a scale thing. A satellite gives full coverage, but it’s working at a large scale, with a long time lag. A plane is more local, with less time lag, but still quite a large scale. A drone is hyper local, with almost no time lag. Depending who is asking, all 3 can be extremely useful.
I can unfortunately see where communication could break down. Local firefighters wanted hyper local information. They didn’t coordinate with the larger effort, and so the accident could have happened.
That’s what bird dogs are for (although I’m unsure if Cali is using them).
…bird dogs? 🤨
Bird dogs are small prop planes that monitor forest fires and help to liason between the tower and other fire fighting units (like helis and water bombers).
They’re used a lot in remote regions where there are no control towers.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-airtanker-pilot-wildfire-season-1.7219664