Global Supertanker operations shut down for financial reasons
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The world's largest firefighting aircraft's future remains up in the air after owners announced it is ceasing operations.
On Friday, a spokesperson with Global SuperTanker Services, based in Colorado Springs confirmed with KRDO the Global SuperTanker is shutting down operations. The President of GSTS Dan Reese telling KRDO on Monday the decision was made strictly for financial reasons. “It’s a difficult pill to swallow and a hard blow,” Reese says.
Reese says the decision to stop operations was handed down by the investment group of the SuperTanker. Over the past three years, the massive red and white Boeing 747-400 freighter capable of dropping 19,200 gallons of water within seconds had to go through several upgrades and updates to its system. The upgrades were to meet all federal requirements and to improve the aircraft's capabilities when battling wildfires. Some of the improvements include in-flight communications, retardant trail-off, capacity, and drop programming.
“Those upgrades need to happen both for the purpose of needing to be made and needing to be compliant with the government agencies when they contract for an asset like this,” Reese said, adding that those costs were significant. “When you do something like this in engage it’s definitely in the millions. There’s nothing cheap about fire aviation.”
Those costs added up, and even with current contracts for the Global SuperTanker to be used on "a call when needed" basis in Colorado, Oregon, California, and the U.S. Forest Service, it wouldn't make up the investment in the time frame they anticipated. Reese didn't want to say how much those contracts were for.
Even though it's never been used in Colorado, Colorado Springs and El Paso County also had a contract with the Global SuperTanker. Previous reports in 2018 show it would cost the City $23,500 per flight hour. Those reports also show in 2017 when the SuperTanker was fighting wildfires in California, it would cost the State $165,000 for a three-day minimum and $16,500 per flight hour.
The Global SuperTanker now sits in Washington at the Moses Lake Municipal Airport where it will remain until its future is decided. Reese hopes that another investment company will step in so that operations can resume, but if not the SuperTanker may be sold to be used as a freighter.
“I think it’s going to be a terrible loss for the country right now especially in the conditions that the environment is in right now it’s really an amazing tool,” Reese says.
The SuperTanker has completed hundreds of missions over the years in California and Oregon. It even responded to fires in Chile, Bolivia, and Israel.
