A generation ago, a spate of fatal crashes of planes and helicopters the Forest Service hired to fight wildfires spurred the agency to start having its own inspectors to make sure the aircraft could safely fly.
Now a senator tied to that industry says the inspections aren’t necessary and that the Forest Service should halt them.
Republican Tim Sheehy, the founder of a Montana-based company that’s made millions of dollars in Forest Service firefighting contracts, said the agency’s inspections are outdated and duplicate the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight responsibilities. Indeed, he once requested a review of a fatal 2021 air crash in which the Forest Service failed to detect a crack in an aircraft’s wing.
The senator took the issue to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last month, requesting a meeting, as well as to the Agriculture Department’s deputy undersecretary for natural resources and environment, Kristin Sleeper, a former Capitol Hill staffer who was briefly a senior adviser in Sheehy’s Senate office, according to a USDA employee who shared portions of internal agency briefing papers.
At issue is the Forest Service’s decadeslong practice of annually inspecting the aircraft it hires from outside contractors for wildfire suppression, which make up the bulk of planes and helicopters responding to fires in national forests. That arrangement, begun after a series of crashes 50 years ago, applies to any so-called public use aircraft used for government purposes and shifts responsibility away from the FAA. The practice applies to other federal agencies as well.
Papers viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News show the administration is discussing the question, but they don’t indicate whether officials are seriously considering a change. The documents were prepared in early March in advance of a meeting Sheehy requested with Rollins, said the USDA employee, who was granted anonymity to share internal communications.
The Forest Service and the USDA had no immediate comment on the issue.
Keeping responsibility for inspections with the Forest Service ensures accountability and increases safety for both the contractor and firefighters on the ground, said Michael Dudley, a retired director of fire, aviation and air management at the Forest Service. Getting rid of Forest Service inspections, he said, “moves us backwards in our safety culture.”
Sheehy isn’t alone in seeking the change, said Paul Petersen, executive director of the United Aerial Firefighters Association, the industry group representing companies that contract for aerial firefighting. Aviation contractors would support a system that allowed for either FAA inspections or a process set up by the industry, he said.
Sheehy, elected in November, is the founder of Bridger Aerospace, a company that’s contracted with the Forest Service and Interior Department for aerial firefighting and which became publicly traded in 2023. He was the company’s CEO from its founding in 2014 until last year and holds millions of dollars in Bridger stock, according to his Senate financial disclosure from last year. Bridger employs around 200 people in Montana.
A decorated former Navy SEAL and pilot for Bridger, Sheehy has become one of the Senate’s most active members on wildfire issues. He’s proposed a restructuring of how the federal government handles wildfire, too, and said changing the inspection system “is one of many steps we can take to more effectively protect our communities from wildfire.”
The Forest Service’s team of around 30 aviation inspectors annually examines contractors’ aircraft and checks on the credentials of pilots, a process called “carding.” Sheehy said the practice overlaps unnecessarily with the FAA’s certification of the crafts’ airworthiness and has outlived its time.
Although it’s important to verify that airplanes and helicopters are properly outfitted for wildfires, FAA certifications ought to be sufficient, Sheehy said in a statement to POLITICO’s E&E News.
Planes and helicopters flown by wildfire aviation contractors have a “special airworthiness certification” from the FAA, obtained after an FAA safety inspector has reviewed the aircraft and its design details. Such certificates can be revoked if an aircraft is changed in a way that might affect its performance for fire-related missions, according to the senator’s office.
“Agency carding of firefighting aircraft is a relic of a bygone era and has become an unnecessary barrier to asset availability,” Sheehy said, referring to the practice by which the Forest Service inspects contracted aircraft and verifies the credentials of hired flight crews.
“With inspector shortages increasing year over year and shifting interpretation of standards, redundant carding has hindered aerial firefighting capability,” Sheehy said.
“We are working to change the regulations to this effect, among many other changes, so that we can provide the maximum number of safe aircraft to the teams fighting fire when they are needed most,” he added.
Multiple crashes
The system of inspections put in place decades ago followed a series of fatal accidents in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which led to an agency study.
From 1968 to 1973, the Forest Service saw 104 helicopter accidents that caused 19 deaths and 47 injuries. The accident rate was 2.8 times the U.S. general aviation rate during the same period, according to the briefing papers.
At that time, according to the papers, aircraft were not inspected by the Forest Service.
Other tragedies have followed. In 2008, a Sikorsky S-61N helicopter under contract with Carson Helicopters crashed near Weaverville, California, when it couldn’t clear the trees upon takeoff. Seven firefighters, the pilot and the safety crew member were killed.
Investigators discovered the company had intentionally understated the helicopter’s weight when empty, and the National Transportation Safety Board also cited insufficient oversight by the Forest Service and the FAA.
That year, the USDA’s Office of Inspector General audited the air safety program and spotted several flaws. Among those, the OIG said the agency should develop an implementation plan for completing airworthiness assessments on all aircraft used for firefighting.
In addition, the OIG said the USDA should write into its contracts a requirement that aircraft meet airworthiness standards and that contractors have appropriate maintenance and inspection programs.
The USDA agreed with those recommendations and made changes to comply with them early the following year.
The OIG also recommended the USDA seek clarity from Congress on the roles of the Forest Service and the FAA, but the Forest Service said clarification wasn’t needed — annual inspections of public-use aircraft are up to the agencies using them, not the FAA.
In 2021, a Beech C90 airplane deployed to a wildfire in Arizona crashed after a wing fell off, killing two crew members. The NTSB blamed that crash on a fatigue crack in a wing spar cap. The operator chose to repair, rather than replace, the wing spar as recommended by the manufacturer. An inspection failed to detect the crack, according to the NTSB.
According to the USDA briefing, prepared by Forest Service Deputy Chief for State, Private and Tribal Forestry John Crockett, the inquiry was based on a requester’s belief that the Forest Service’s inspections are duplicative.
“The requester believes because aircraft are civil certified by the FAA for airworthiness they are legal to fly and the Carding is superfluous,” the briefing paper said.
The requester — identified as Sheehy by the USDA employee — also asked that “all Forest Service inspection of contracted aircraft” be halted based on the belief that they duplicate what the FAA does.
Enough inspectors for the job?
Although the safety record has improved sharply, the demands are heavy on aircraft used in wildfire efforts, said Petersen, the United Aerial Firefighters Association executive director. Air tankers are usually modified passenger planes, and companies make modifications to enable them to carry as much as 3,000 gallons of water, he said.
One question for the future, Petersen said: Will the Forest Service have enough inspectors after the Trump administration finishes the agency downsizing recommended by the “Department of Government Efficiency” and planned through early retirements?
Sheehy’s office said inspectors have already been stretched due to staff shortages, making inspections hard to schedule. In addition, inspectors from one department to another don’t always interpret regulations identically, meaning aircraft could be used by one agency but not another with a more immediate need, his office said.
With such questions lingering, Petersen said, aviation companies are working on creating their own “carding” inspection standards.
However the issue plays out, it speaks to the bottom line for dozens of companies that compete for federal wildfire contracts with both the Forest Service and the Interior Department.
Among other big contracting wins, Bridger was one of 28 companies that secured a five-year multiple-award contract for light fixed-wing aircraft in 2023; the company’s maximum share was $166 million.
Bridger also received a five-year, $20.1 million contract from Interior in January for use of its CL-415EAF “Super Scooper” airplane in firefighting efforts.
That Sheehy or aviation contractors might be looking for a change isn’t surprising, said one former USDA official familiar with the Forest Service’s aviation program.
“I know contractors hate it,” said this former employee, who was granted anonymity to protect ongoing relationships with USDA officials. “Everybody in aviation has a big ego.”
Aviation is also one of the Forest Service’s biggest expenses, this former employee said, costing the agency $2,500 to $50,000 per day depending on the type of aircraft.
The annual cost of more than $900 million for aerial firefighting can surpass that of on-the-ground firefighting, spurring competition among companies that seek contracts, this former employee said. “It’s big industry. It’s big money.”
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