California deploys new giant planes to fight wildfires two decades after the famous crash

California has a groundbreaking new tool in its wildfire-fighting arsenal that has already seen many battles.

After years of waiting, a flight-ready C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft is finally available for the firefighting fleet of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the state's main firefighting agency, state officials announced Monday.

This C-130, a surplus model acquired from the U.S. Coast Guard in 1985, is a type of aircraft used by the military since the 1950s as a workhorse to transport soldiers, cargo, even tanks and jeeps. Cal Fire crews retrofitted the massive plane — whose 133-foot wingspan is the size of an 11-story building laid on its side — to carry 4,000 gallons of fire retardant, more than three times the capacity of the other tankers Cal Fire has used for years.

“They can fly farther and carry more fire retardant,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Brent Pascua. “We're going to station these aircraft so they can hit any location in California within 20 minutes, no matter how far or how remote. They're fantastic. They can fly far. They can fly fast. We want to get to the fires quickly so we can keep them small. That's going to help tremendously.”

The C-130 can fly 800 miles at speeds up to 368 miles per hour, giving it the highest speed and range of the state's airborne fleet.

The federal government plans to move six more C-130s to California in the coming years. The plane unveiled Monday will be based at McClellan Airtanker Base near Sacramento. Another plane is scheduled to arrive at Cal Fire's Fresno base later this year, and another is planned for early 2025 at Cal Fire's Ramona Air Force Base in San Diego County, Pascua said.

California is the first state to own, maintain and operate its own C-130 firefighting aircraft.

However, the aircraft are not without controversy.

In 2002, a private C-130 operating on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service crashed in Mono County while fighting the Cannon Fire in the Eastern Sierra. A shocking video taken by a bystander showed the plane jettisoning its cargo and both wings breaking off as it climbed, killing all three crew members.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the crash was caused by a structural failure, including cracks in the rivets on the aging 1957 aircraft where the wings were connected to the fuselage.

Subsequently, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management decided not to renew leases with the Air Force for nine C-130s due to concerns about the safety of the aircraft, which had been in service since the 1950s.

Pascua said Monday that each of the seven former Coast Guard aircraft that California is reusing to fight fires will undergo a $6.5 million retrofit, which includes adding a 4,000-gallon tank and replacing the inner and outer wing boxes, the parts of the aircraft that connect the wings to the fuselage.

Cal Fire already has about 60 helicopters and aircraft, a fleet that Governor Gavin Newsom regularly describes as the largest civilian aerial firefighting fleet in the world.

Fire service experts said on Monday that the purchase of the additional aircraft was a good step.

“Adding firepower to our firefighting toolbox will definitely help contain many wildfires before they get big,” said Zeke Lunder, a wildfire analyst and geographer from Chico.

But the state needs to take more steps to make further progress, he added, including reducing brush and trees that have accumulated over decades of firefighting and make fires burn more intensely when they do break out, better land-use planning and more affordable housing options for people looking to move out of rural areas with high fire risk.

“Our most devastating fires often start in extreme weather conditions or in places where firefighting is impossible,” said Lunder, who runs digital communications company Lookout Media, which specializes in wildfire and forestry issues. “More tankers won't change that. The Park Fire started under power lines and the tankers couldn't be dropped directly on the fire during initial firefighting because they can't drop directly on the lines.”

Newsom said Monday that at a time when temperatures are steadily rising, the seven C-130 tankers would help firefighters better contain the spread of fires.

“The climate crisis has made wildfires more destructive, and we must address these threats with new resources,” Newsom said. “This aircraft will strengthen Cal Fire's ability to fight fires earlier and with greater intensity, better protecting Californians.”

It took years for the first C-130 to arrive.

In 2018, after California suffered a deadly fire season, the late Senator Dianne Feinstein authored a bill requiring the U.S. Air Force to convert seven surplus Coast Guard C-130s into firefighting tanker aircraft for Cal Fire.

But the Air Force's lengthy process of bidding, reviewing and awarding contracts – which can take two years in some cases – and the subsequent COVID pandemic slowed progress. Frustrated, California politicians pushed for the planes.

In December last year, Senators Alex Padilla (D-California) and Ken Calvert (Republican, Corona) finally added a clause to the defense budget requiring the Air Force to move the aircraft to California.

“Now,” Padilla said, “California can respond to wildfires more quickly and effectively as we face drier conditions and increasingly devastating fires.”