Neptune slurry bombers return to aerial firefighting duty

Neptune Aviation’s fleet of P2V retardant bombers returned to the air Tuesday, after one of its planes crashed in Utah on Sunday, killing two pilots. “As a company, we’re dealing with the loss, but as to our core direction, we’re still the same company,” Neptune president Dan Snyder said by phone from Cedar City, Utah, on Tuesday. “We’re still moving forward. And we still plan on adding two more 146s this summer.” Neptune has developed a BAe-146 jet plane for firefighting and won an interim contract from the U.S. Forest Service to use it this year. The Missoula-based company is waiting for word from the U.S. Forest Service on how many contracts for next-generation aircraft it will award this year. “Even if the contracts don’t come on line, we have every intention to bring those aircraft on and offer them to the Forest Service,” Snyder said. “The plan is as the BAe’s come on, we start retiring the P2s. We’ll do that according to our ability to maintain them. We don’t want to move too fast as a company.” Neptune has seven remaining P2Vs on contract with the Forest Service. They vary in age, although all are around 50 years old. Tanker 11 – which crashed Sunday – was built in 1962. The planes were originally designed for anti-submarine combat in the Korean War. For years, Neptune’s Missoula facility has been manufacturing its own parts and equipment to keep the fleet airworthy...more