Air tanker tracker: firefighting aircraft flying right now
During fire season the biggest aircraft over a wildfire are converted airliners dropping thousands of gallons of red retardant, and the water bombers scooping lakes are purpose-built amphibians. This tracker follows the large and very large air tankers of North America by their individual airframes, plus every CL-415 scooper in the world by type.
| Flight | Registration | Operator | Type | Altitude | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loading… | |||||
firefighting air tankers at a glance
- DC-10 Air Tanker
- 10 Tanker's converted DC-10-30s drop up to 9,400 gallons of retardant in a single pass
- Coulson 737 Fireliner and C-130
- About 4,000 gallons each; Coulson's newer 737-700 conversions carry around 5,000
- BAe 146 and RJ85
- Neptune's BAe 146s and Aero-Flite's RJ85s carry about 3,000 gallons, the Forest Service minimum for a large air tanker
- Dash 8-400AT and Electra
- Conair's Dash 8-400ATs carry about 2,640 gallons; Air Spray still flies four-engine Lockheed Electras
- CL-415 scooper
- About 1,600 gallons of water, scooped from a lake in roughly 12 seconds
How a drop works
Large air tankers don't try to put fires out. They lay a line of retardant, the red slurry that stains hillsides, ahead of the flames to slow a fire down so crews on the ground can build a line. A lead plane, often a small twin-engine jet or turboprop, flies the run first to show the tanker pilot the line, and the tanker follows it at a few hundred feet. A DC-10 can lay a line about a mile long in one pass, then flies back to a tanker base to reload, which takes under twenty minutes.
Scoopers work differently. A CL-415 lands on a lake or reservoir at speed, scoops up about 1,600 gallons in roughly twelve seconds without stopping, and drops it straight on the fire. Where water is close, a scooper can make a drop every few minutes.
When to look
In the western United States the season runs from about June to October, with tankers staged at bases like Boise, McClellan near Sacramento, Albuquerque and Missoula. Canada's season is May to September, and Conair's and Air Spray's aircraft move between provinces as fires flare. The CL-415 fleets of France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Croatia and Morocco fly all summer around the Mediterranean, and Quebec and Ontario fly theirs through the Canadian summer.
Outside the season, large air tankers mostly sit at their home bases for maintenance, so an empty list in winter is normal. Some fly to Australia or Chile for the southern summer. A tanker broadcasting over a remote area on a hot, dry afternoon almost always means a fire.
Questions
What is the red stuff air tankers drop?
Fire retardant, a mix of water, ammonium phosphate fertilizer salts and red dye. The salts keep working after the water evaporates, so the line slows a fire for hours. The dye is there so pilots can see where the last drop landed.
Which is the biggest firefighting plane?
In regular service, 10 Tanker's DC-10s, which drop up to 9,400 gallons. The Global SuperTanker, a converted 747 that carried about 19,000 gallons, stopped flying in 2021.
Why isn't a tanker I can see overhead on the map?
This tracker follows the large air tankers of specific operators by airframe plus every CL-415 by type. Smaller single-engine tankers, lead planes and helicopters aren't included, and some aircraft only broadcast part of the time.
More live trackers
Positions from the adsb.lol volunteer ADS-B network (ODbL). Aircraft are shown only while a receiver can hear them.