{"id":10275,"date":"2024-12-23T17:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T16:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gacetaeronautica.com\/gaceta\/wp-102\/?p=10275"},"modified":"2024-12-24T01:44:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T00:44:20","slug":"conaf-deploys-77-forest-fire-fighting-aircraft-in-central-and-southern-chile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gacetaeronautica.com\/gaceta\/wp-102\/conaf-deploys-77-forest-fire-fighting-aircraft-in-central-and-southern-chile\/","title":{"rendered":"Chilean government deploys almost 80 forest fire fighting aircraft for the summer season"},"content":{"rendered":"

In preparation for the 2024\/2025 wild fires season, Chile’s National Forestry Corporation<\/strong> (Corporaci\u00f3n Nacional Forestal, CONAF) officiallly acknowledged deployment of 36 fixed-wing and 41 rotary-wing aircraft throughout 12 regions where events are expected to occur between December 2024 and April 2025.<\/p>\n

CONAF, a Chilean government agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, is responsible for overseeing and managing the country’s forest resources and protecting them from various threats, including wildfires, which are a recurring natural disaster due to the country’s dry climate, particularly during the summer season (December through March).<\/p>\n

\"Fireliner\"
Human fire fighters and equipment pose in front of Coulson Aviation aircraft deployed to Vi\u00f1a del Mar airport (Valpara\u00edso Region) during a presidential visit marking the arrival of a Boeing Fireliner and its guiding Cessna Citation II on 11\/30\/2024 (photo: Chile’s Presidential Office).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

The organization works in close cooperation with the National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response<\/strong> (Servicio Nacional de Prevenci\u00f3n y Respuesta ante Desastres, SENAPRED), which plays a coordinating role during wildfires, integrating resources and efforts from CONAF and other organizations, ensures logistic support, communication, and allocation of additional resources from regional and national levels and may declare states of emergency and call upon the military or international aid to support CONAF’s efforts in severe emergencies where fire threaten populated areas.<\/p>\n

Master plan<\/strong><\/h3>\n

According to information supplied in replies to citizen inquiries, CONAF’s 2024-2025 Air Operations Plan<\/strong> (Plan Operativo A\u00e9reo Per\u00edodo 2024-2025) is deploying two large air tankers, 26 tankers (adapted crop sprayers), four coordination and four surveillance aircraft plus 41 helicopters (comprising 19 light, 15 medium, six semi-heavy and one heavy units).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ecureuil CC-AUH is destined for the Linares, Maule, fire station (photo: Carlos Ay, Chicureo, Metropolitan Region, 12\/13\/2024).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Interestingly enough, only three (Air Tractor AT-802) aircraft are actually owned by CONAF itself: The remaining 74 aircraft were contracted through international tenders and come from the Chilean (34 aircraft),\u00a0Spanish (12),\u00a0Argentine (10),\u00a0United States (8),\u00a0Canadian (3),\u00a0Austrian (2),\u00a0Bolivian (1),\u00a0Brazilian (1),\u00a0German (1),\u00a0Peruvian (1) and Uruguayan (1) civil aircraft registers.<\/p>\n

Aircraft in this “baseline plan” are ostensibly deployed in their assigned operating bases and have started dealing with a variety of low, medium and high priority events in areas where wild fires have already been recorded in by media, CONAF and SENAPRED.<\/p>\n

Geographical distribution<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Air Tractor CC-AOQ is destined for the Peldehue, Metropolitan Region, base (photo: Carlos Ay, Panguilemo, Maule, 04\/11\/2024).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Nearly 50% of the fleet is allocated to the Central and Souther Chile macro zone comprising the O’Higgins<\/strong>, Maule<\/strong>, \u00d1uble<\/strong> and Biob\u00edo<\/strong> regions, totalling 38 aircraft distributed in 21 locations.<\/p>\n

Next comes the Central Chile macro zone, comprising the Coquimbo<\/strong>, Valpara\u00edso<\/strong> and Metropolitan<\/strong> regions, distributing 21 aircraft in 12 locations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bell 205A CC-CIQ is destined for “Maqui-1”, the Regional Fire Management unit in Western Talca, Maule Region (photo: Carlos Ay, Chicureo, Metropolitan Region, 09\/16\/2024).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Southern nacrozone, comprising the Araucan\u00eda<\/strong>, Los R\u00edos<\/strong> and Los Lagos<\/strong> regions, records 14 aircraft distributed among nine locations.<\/p>\n

Purportedly the least threatened one, Austral macrozone comprimse the Ays\u00e9n<\/strong> and Magallanes<\/strong> regions and records only four aircraft distributed among four locations, including the ever fragile national park Paine Towers (Torrel del Paine).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
C-130 Hercules N140CG “TANKER 3” is destined to be stationed at Mar\u00eda Dolores airport near Los \u00c1ngeles, Biob\u00edo Region (photo: Maurice Becker, Pudahuel, Metropolitan Region, 12\/14\/2024).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

According to a detailed Pista 18 survey<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, the fleet comprises\u00a020 Air Tractor AT-802,\u00a0four TECNAM P2006, three Cessna 337, three Dromader, three Turbo Thrush,\u00a0one Boeing 737, one C-130 Hercules and one Vulcanair P68 aircraft plus\u00a018 Airbus Ecureuil,\u00a0six Bell 212, four Airbus Super Puma, four Bell 205 four Bell 412,\u00a0two Sikorsky Blackhawk,\u00a0one Airbus H130, one UH-1D Iroquois and one Boeing-Vertol Chinook.<\/p>\n

Not accounted for in CONAF’s documentation but included in the survey above is Citation II N550CG, which operates in Boeing 737 “TANKER 7” guidance duties using call sign “GUIA 1”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cover photo<\/strong>: Turbo Thrush EC-NLT taking off for its last mission to a wild fire in the neighbourhood of Romeral (photo: Carlos Ay, Panguilemo, Maule, 12\/09\/2024).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Knowing that 99.9% of Chilean wildfires are attributed to intentional or accidental human intervention, CONAF launched a mass and social media campaign boasting that “preventing a forest fire is easier than fighting one”<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

This massive aircraft deployment and the US $158.000.000 national action plan that it is called to support are a clear government commitment to promptly activate integrated assets when actual wild fires erupt.<\/p>\n

\n

Acknoledgement<\/strong>: Claudio C\u00e1ceres Godoy contributed proofreading for this chronicle. References<\/strong>: Chile’s Presidential Office, CONAF, SENAPRED and Wikipedia. This story also used public domain information retrieved with artificial intelligence solution, ChatGPT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In preparation for the 2024\/2025 wild fires season, Chile’s National Forestry Corporation (Corporaci\u00f3n Nacional Forestal, CONAF) officiallly acknowledged deployment of 36 fixed-wing and 41 rotary-wing aircraft throughout 12 regions where events are expected to occur between December 2024 and April 2025. CONAF, a Chilean government agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, is responsible for overseeing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[218,228,229,201,225,226,120,55,221,216,215,220,86,224,191,222,217,227,219,223],"class_list":["post-10275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-air-tractor","tag-airbus-h130","tag-bell-204","tag-bell-205","tag-bell-212","tag-bell-412","tag-boeing-737","tag-boeing-vertol-chinook","tag-cessna-skymaster","tag-conaf-chile","tag-forest-fire-fighters","tag-h125-ecureuil","tag-lockheed-hercules","tag-p68-observer","tag-puma-super-puma","tag-pzl-dromader","tag-senapred-chile","tag-sikorsky-blackhawk","tag-tecnam-p2006","tag-turbo-thrush"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gacetaeronautica.com\/gaceta\/wp-102\/wp-content\/uploads\/3024\/12\/EC-NLT-2024-12-09-23-13-10_edited.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1JKRl-2FJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1499,"url":"https:\/\/www.gacetaeronautica.com\/gaceta\/wp-102\/aviacin-ejecutiva-llega-a-su-madurez-en-fidae-2012\/","url_meta":{"origin":10275,"position":0},"title":"Executive aviation comes of age at FIDAE 2012","author":"Carlos Ay","date":"Monday 9 July 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"After decades overshadowed by their military peers, executive aviation exhibitions appeared to come of age at FIDAE 2012. 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