Too Close for Comfort

[J.O.]

Firefighting Jet Grounded After Mishap

A one-time passenger jet modified to fight wildfires remained grounded Tuesday after striking the tops of several trees and nearly crashing while battling a mountain blaze along the San Joaquin Valley's southern edge.

The DC-10 air tanker, unveiled with much fanfare by California fire officials last year as the first firefighting jet of its kind, ran into severe turbulence over Kern County late Monday afternoon and dropped toward the ground before pilots were able to power out of the descent.

No one was injured in the near-miss incident, and the crew returned to its base in Victorville, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Mechanics and FAA investigators were examining the jet to determine how it came so close to crashing, said Daniel Berlant, a forestry department spokesman.

The plane, known as Tanker 910, was being used to drop fire retardant over a blaze dubbed the White Fire, which had burned through 9,300 acres of brush about 80 miles north of Los Angeles by Tuesday morning.

With a destructive Lake Tahoe wildfire also continuing to rage, officials offered no immediate estimate of how long the plane would remain out of commission. The jet will be kept out of the sky "as long as it takes to make sure that that aircraft can be safely put back into service," Berlant said.

The DC-10 can carry 12,000 gallons of water or fire retardant - 10 times the volume of the standard propeller planes that make up the bulk of California's firefighting air fleet.

Tanker 910 once belonged to American Airlines (nyse: AMR - news - people ) and later flew 380-passenger charter flights to Hawaii before being put on fire fighting duty in July 2006. The plane fought five fires last year and deposited retardant on two Kern County fires over the weekend before Monday's incident.

The state has contracted with the plane's owner, 10 Tanker Air Carrier of Victorville, for exclusive use of Tanker 910 through the 2009 fire season at a cost of $5 million per year.

Calls to 10 Tanker Air Carrier were not immediately returned.

The White Fire was about 30 percent contained Tuesday, Kern County fire engineer Michael Nicholas said. Crews did not know when to expect full containment, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Virgil Mink said.

Overnight, burning debris rolled beyond the northern fire line and ignited brush in the nearby Horse Thief Canyon area, Mink said. Morning firefighting crews were mopping up those scattered flames, he said.

A state assessment team was evaluating possible fire damage to the summer homes and cabins that dot the area, but no damage had been confirmed, Mink said.

[Maverick]

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