Evaluation of DC-10 air tanker

A DC-10 firefighting tanker jet visited Victoria in the 2009-10 fire season for a comprehensive Bushfire CRC evaluation of its performance.

Bushfire CRC researcher Dr Matt Plucinski of CSIRO prepared  a 94-page report on the trial for Victoria’s Department of Sustainability and Environment.

His report analysed the various drops of retardant made by the aircraft during real and simulated firefighting runs and found it had “limited effectiveness and presented some clear safety issues.”