REGINA – The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency are grounding three Bird Dog aircraft from their fleet out of safety concerns.
The agency announced Friday they are temporarily pausing the three aircraft from aerial wildfire suppression duties, which are the same model as the one that recently crashed in the Northwest Territories killing three people.
SPSA said in a news release that out of an abundance of caution, they are proactively conducting a full and comprehensive review of the three aircraft to ensure they will be safe to come back into service. The three aircraft will be suspended from action until their review is done.
"The safety of our pilots, crews and the public is our highest priority," SPSA President and Fire Commissioner Marlo Pritchard said in a statement. "While these aircraft are critical to our wildfire response operations, we are taking a proactive approach to ensure their continued safety and reliability…"
"We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will return the aircraft to service only after all required inspections have been completed and any necessary follow-up actions have been addressed."
To minimize impacts on wildfire suppression operations, SPSA says it has reconfigured aircraft groupings and operational assignments across its air fleet to maintain operational readiness and ensure continued support for wildfire response activities.
The agency said they still have four other Bird Dogs available to support wildfire suppression, and said they have brought in extra aircraft including another Bird Dog from outside the province through mutual aid agreements. They say they will bring in additional Bird Dogs if needed.
