But some of the firefighting behemoths likely will return to service following a review of their airworthiness - and a next-generation fleet of air tankers should be developed, Bosworth said.
In Missoula for the 50th anniversary rededication of the Forest Service's Aerial Fire Depot, the chief reaffirmed his support for the air tanker industry, despite a May 11 decision to cancel the government's firefighting contract with all 33 of the privately owned, multi-engine aircraft.
But Bosworth said he had no choice but to scuttle this summer's contracts after reading a National Transportation Safety Board report on two air tanker crashes in 2002.
In both disasters, the wings broke off the aircraft during a retardant drop.
"That was pretty graphic," he said. "Even then, though, we still hoped we could use these older air tankers while we began the transition to a more modern fleet."
The NTSB report, which reached Bosworth's desk on April 23, changed the discussion. "Frankly, we were surprised by a couple of the recommendations," he said.
Bosworth knew his agency was at odds with the Federal Aviation Administration over who was responsible for ruling on the safety of aircraft used for wildland firefighting.
So when the NTSB said it was primarily the Forest Service's responsibility to judge airworthiness, "that was pretty significant," he said.
Then the NTSB said it could not determine - based on its investigation of the two crashes in 2002 - the airworthiness of the remaining air tankers.
"And I am sitting there thinking that we should never knowingly put aircraft in the sky if we cannot say they are airworthy," Bosworth said. "It got down to a point where we said, 'We can't do this.' "
The timing was bad, he conceded. By the time the contracts were canceled in May, wildfires were already burning in Arizona and New Mexico.
"But it would have been worse timing if the wings had come off another airplane in July, and we'd lost them all and had no way to backfill," Bosworth said.
Over the past month, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have contracted with hundreds of water-dropping helicopters and single-engine air tankers to take on some of the initial attack duties normally given to the big air tankers, at a cost of more than $60 million.
Bosworth would still rather have heavy air tankers as part of the mix, but believes communities and forests are well-protected as the wildfire season continues to march northward.
And he is concerned, he said, that three of the single-engine air tankers pressed into duty have already crashed - in March in Arizona, May in Idaho and on Thursday evening outside St. George, Utah.
Those crashes are all under investigation, Bosworth said.
And while the NTSB did warn the Forest Service that it needs an airworthiness program for all firefighting aircraft, Bosworth said he still believes it was the right decision to act first on "the riskiest, most unknown situation" - that being the safety of the large air tankers.
But why scuttle all the contracts when the 2002 crashes were both aircraft operated by Hawkins and Powers of Greybull, Wyo.? And why didn't NTSB investigators visit the other operators before damning their aircraft?
"The NTSB's concern was for structural fatigue in the fleet as a whole," Bosworth said. "Their concern wasn't focused on Hawkins and Powers, but on the overall industry."
Had the Forest Service told contractors they might not use their air tankers this summer, the decision would quickly have become political, he said.
So the possibility was not discussed with a wider - and almost assuredly politicized - audience.
"This decision needed to be based on facts and concern for the public," Bosworth said. "Just as now, the decision on returning planes to service will be based on the facts, one aircraft at a time."
Contractors have been given an opportunity to prove the safety of their aircraft by providing detailed maintenance and flight records for each plane.
And the Forest Service has contracted with DynCorp Technical Services - a private company with a long history in aircraft maintenance - to evaluate the air tankers and judge their airworthiness.
"Our hope is, we'd like a determination made fairly quickly, yes or no, on these aircraft," Bosworth said. "And if there are air tankers that pass the test, we'd like to get them back in the air this year."
It's unlikely that all 33 air tankers will ever return to service, though, the chief said. So DynCorp is also advising the Forest Service on what features it should look for in the next generation of firefighting air tankers.
Bosworth said he wants air tankers to remain a private enterprise.
"My bias is it's worked very well with private companies providing the air tankers," he said. "That seems like the best model from my perspective."
So private industry will have to provide the newer, more modern firefighting aircraft Bosworth hopes to see in service within a few years' time, he said.
"But we'll have to show them what we want, and what our expectations will be," he said. "That's our part of the equation."
"I do worry about the people employed by these private contractors, and how the decision to cancel these contracts is affecting them," Bosworth said.
(Neptune Aviation, for example, has given its crews notice of a possible layoff.)
"But nothing can replace that image of the wings coming off those airplanes," he said. "And that was footage taken by someone from their home.
"What if the wings came off an air tanker and it plowed into a subdivision or school? The discussion we're having right now would be altogether different, and rightly so."
"We are not making decisions carelessly," Bosworth said. "A lot of thinking and a lot of concern went into all these decisions, and will continue to as we move ahead."
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com
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