page_title: 2002 United States airtanker crashes
hierarchical_section_title: 2002 United States airtanker crashes
caption_attribution_description: P4Y-2 Tanker 123 BuNo 66260 (N7620C), of Hawkins &amp; Powers in service supporting the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, at Chester Air Attack Base in the late 1990s―crashed 18 July 2002.
context_page_description: In 2002, two large airtankers – a Lockheed C-130 Hercules and a Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer – crashed about a month apart while performing aerial firefighting operations. These crashes prompted a review of the maintenance and use of the entire U.S. large airtanker fleet. Ultimately, the whole fleet was grounded, dramatically reducing the resources available to fight major wildfires. Both aircraft were owned by Hawkins & Powers Aviation of Greybull, Wyoming and operated under contract to the United States Forest Service. The crashes occurred in one of the worst fire seasons in the last half century, one in which 73,000 fires burned 7.2 million acres of land.
context_section_description: In 2002, two large airtankers – a Lockheed C-130 Hercules and a Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer – crashed about a month apart while performing aerial firefighting operations. These crashes prompted a review of the maintenance and use of the entire U.S. large airtanker fleet. Ultimately, the whole fleet (33 aircraft in all) was grounded, dramatically reducing the resources available to fight major wildfires. Both aircraft were owned by Hawkins & Powers Aviation of Greybull, Wyoming and operated under contract to the United States Forest Service (USFS). The crashes occurred in one of the worst fire seasons in the last half century, one in which 73,000 fires burned 7.2 million acres (29,000 km²) of land.
caption: P4Y-2 Tanker 123, at Chester Air Attack Base in the late 1990s
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:08:14 17:08:38", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5379", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "863", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "554"}