Four MAFFS being swapped out

The four military MAFFS air tankers that have been activated since June 11 and 21 are being swapped out for four others. Over the next few days the C-130s and crews from the 302nd Airlift Wing, Colorado Springs (US Air Force Reserve), and the 146th Airlift Wing, Channel Islands (California Air National Guard) are being traded for two each from Air National Guard units in North Carolina and Wyoming

Here is an excerpt from an article in the Charlotte Observer about the North Carolina aircraft:

…Three C-130s will lift off Sunday from the base at Charlotte Douglas International Airport and head to Mesa, Ariz., to fight a new outbreak of wildfires. Their assignment comes less than a week after 19 firefighters were killed on the ground while battling a raging wildfire near Yarnell, Ariz., about 90 miles northwest of Phoenix.

A year ago, four Charlotte-based crewmen were killed on a mission when a sudden downdraft hurled their aircraft into a mesa in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Charlotte’s Air National Guard unit is one of four in the nation, and the only one on the East Coast, equipped with what are called MAFFS units. Mobile Airborne Fire-Fighting Systems are van-sized tanks that are loaded onto C-130 cargo planes to spread fire retardant from low altitudes.

Two C-130s from the base are equipped with the MAFFS gear, and a third carries support personnel. In all, about 30 members of the N.C. Air Guard unit will be on the mission, Lt. Col. Rose Dunlap of the N.C. Air National Guard said Wednesday.

Thanks go out to John