Call for ‘swarm’ attack on bushfires
AUSTRALIA needs to send “swarms” of aircraft to aggressively attack bushfires early, the aerial firefighting industry says.
Aircraft are consistently sent to fires too late and miss the opportunity for a hard initial attack, Australia’s largest privately-owned helicopter operator says.
“Watching the fire develop when you’re sitting with a helicopter ready to go and attack it is a very frustrating exercise,” McDermott Aviation president John McDermott told the bushfires royal commission.
The CEO of the national industry body representing aerial firefighting operators and pilots, Philip Hurst, said there should be a pre-determined dispatch of aircraft in a “swarm” or “wolf pack”.
South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia already use some form of pre-determined or automatic dispatch.
Mr Hurst, CEO of the Aerial Application Association of Australia, said having fullycontracted aircraft on standby ready to go and on pre-determined dispatch meant they could be used in an aggressive initial attack role.
“Aggressive initial attack is where aircraft absolutely shine. It’s where they do their best work, when the fire is small and buys time for the ground crews to get in as well as sometimes being able to get the fire out, at least in some significant way, for the ground crews to do a better job.”
Mr Hurst said during multiday campaign bushfires, fire agencies seemed to struggle to get aircraft out before 10am, possibly as they reappraised their attack plan.
“If you were to put those togethe gether—- pre-determined dispatch for fully contracted aircra aircraft and get them on to the fires a as early in the day as possible — we would be able to lift the productivity of the fleet qui quite considerably without an any significant change in ex expenditure.”
National Aerial Firefi fighting Centre general m manager Richard Alder sa said South Australia was th the leader in Australia in int introducing a system of auto automatic dispatch, under pre-d pre-determined conditions, in the A Adelaide Hills.