The fire in the southern macro zone of Chile has required an unprecedented effort by the National Forestry Corporation to combat it. One of the most valuable tools that the CNFS has for this purpose is the Ten Tanker aircraft, which has proven to be a key resource to extinguish fires. However, on the day of Tuesday, February 7, a defect in the bypass valve of engine 1 stopped the operations of the Ten Tanker.
The aircraft maintenance technicians detected the failure during the daily inspection and immediately notified the Ten Tanker company. The company, in an effort to fix the problem quickly, arranged for an FAA-certified mechanic to travel from the United States to Chile with the necessary parts. The result of this is that the Ten Tanker plane will have to remain on the ground for three days, with the expectation that it will return to operation next Saturday to fight the fires in the Ñuble, Biobío and La Araucanía regions.
Before the failure, the Ten Tanker had made six water drops, with a capacity of 36,000 liters each. This has meant valuable help for firefighting efforts in the macro-south zone of Chile. However, the temporary loss of this resource has forced the CNFS to reallocate resources from other regions that are without fires to prioritize the emergency in the macro-south zone.
The Ten Tanker lease contract with the CNFS is for 14 days, so the three days that the aircraft will be on the ground will be compensated at the end of that period, thus reaching 17 days in Chile. The CNFS hopes that the return of the Ten Tanker to operations will be of great help to fight the fires in the southern macro zone and provide a solution to this crisis.
