MMEA aircraft flies 21 hours in 5 days to fight fires in Indonesia

A Bombardier CL 415 aircraft owned by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) conducted 21 hours of flight time in five days, releasing about 546,000 litres of water in about 60 square nautical miles of fire-razed areas in South Sumatra, Indonesia.

MMEA Deputy Director-General (Operations), Rear Admiral Datuk Che Hassan Jusoh said despite the limited visibility, the aircraft was able to carry out between 15 to 20 water bombings daily, by drawing water from Sungai Lumpur located 70 miles southeast of Palembang.

"The Bombardier carried out the fire-fighting operations efficiently and effectively, taking only seven minutes from the time to draw water, to the site of bombing," he said in a statement issued Thursday.

Since last Friday, the MMEA had dispatched the Bombardier CL 415 aircraft and an AS 365 N3 Dauphin helicopter to the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport, Palembang to join the operations to fight the fires. Both are scheduled to return to Malaysia today.

Che Hassan was also in Palembang Wednesday to personally view the operations, including from the AS 365 N3 helicopter.

He said each Bombardier flight to the fire-razed areas would have three crew members comprising the pilot, co-pilot and cabin crew, adding the Indonesian authorities appreciated the Malaysian Government's assistance in fire fighting.

"Officially, this assistance will end tomorrow (Friday), but the Indonesian authorities plan to request that the MMEA continue with the operations until November."