Columbia Chinook Fights Mexico Fires

Columbia Helicopters has dispatched one of its Boeing 234 Chinook tandem-rotor helicopters to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula to assist with wildfire suppression. The helicopter is based in Cancun on a 30-day contract in partnership with Vertical Aviation of San Antonio and Scala Helicopters in Mexico City. It is Columbia’s first firefighting assignment in Mexico. The 234 can lift 28,000 pounds (sea level) and carries a 2,650-gallon SEI Torrentula Bambi Bucket tethered to a 200-foot long line. The bucket caries four high-speed pumps and can be filled from water sources
as shallow as 18 inches in less than two minutes.