Aero Union P-3s grounded

[airattackimages]

All eight Aero Union P-3s have had their airworthiness certs pulled as of last night. This is huge, considering the eight P-3s make up the bulk of the nation's federal heavy air tanker fleet (the VLATs don't count)... not to mention the fact that they are among the MOST airworthy aircraft anywhere, let alone in firefighting. Word is this mess is a paperwork snafu caused by mismanagement at the company. I'd prefer to reserve judgement since I have a lot of respect for Aero Union... safe to say either way there are a lot of people hoping this can be resolved, and QUICK. A grounding like this brought Hawkins & Powers to their end in the 90s, after they had lost a C-130A and PB4Y-2 in accidents.


Hopefully this can be ironed out, fast. The fire season is rapidly approaching, and is already in progress in areas like Texas and New Mexico, where several of the P-3s are currently at work. They have a 3 day temporary ferry permit to immediately return all aircraft home to Sacramento.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5016/5548667554_c02c011316.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/airattackimages/5548667554/)
Aero Union P-3A Aerostar, Tanker 21 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/airattackimages/5548667554/) by airattackimages.com (http://www.flickr.com/people/airattackimages/), on Flickr

[Daveroo]

man this sucks...i hope the issue gets resolves quickly.

[FOO FIGHTER]

Hopefully the entire fleet will still be at McClellan Saturday, I'll try to get a group shot. Took this one a few weeks ago.

[stansdds]

Oh, that's just great. Ground the big firefighters as the wild fire season starts. But, if someone at Aero Union did not file the proper documents with the FAA, then the FAA has a duty to ground the fleet. I, too, hope this is resolved in days, not weeks or months.

[Railrunner130]

IF it is something more than paperwork, I hope it can be quickly and safely resolved. Again IF it's more than that, thankfully nobody was hurt or worse. The H&P Herk crash comes to mind...

HOPEFULLY, it is merely a paperwork snafu.

[airattackimages]

From what I'm hearing now, this entire mess was caused by the government and Aero Union is trying to sort it out as soon as they possibly can. Lets hope the government doesn't screw around too long!!! There is nothing wrong with those aircraft and we're just looking at government red tape. How sickening!

The USFS needs to know they're limiting the most important aircraft in firefighting. The Aero Union P-3s are the essential core of the federal airtanker fleet, we can't go any length of time without them, let alone a season! Pretty ridiculous since as I mentioned earlier, you won't find a cleaner, more well oiled and maintained fleet of aircraft anywhere.

[Daveroo]

i talked to Norm Cook,he asked me not to give details but compair this to DMV and your yearly tags on you cars lic tags...was just a foul up.will be cleared well in time for fireseason (in california anyway)

BTW..i sent aero union an email and was shocked to have the Chief pilot who replied to me be a long time friend...LOL i thought he had retired

[airattackimages]

i talked to Norm Cook,he asked me not to give details but compair this to DMV and your yearly tags on you cars lic tags...was just a foul up.will be cleared well in time for fireseason (in california anyway)

BTW..i sent aero union an email and was shocked to have the Chief pilot who replied to me be a long time friend...LOL i thought he had retired
Same thing I had heard from an official source. Thanks for posting!

Foo Fighter, I always love seeing Aero Union pics!

[FOO FIGHTER]

Sorry gents, I went by McClellan Sunday and didn't see a one. I wanted to go have a look see at Mather but work wouldn't allow the time.