Fighting fire from the sky: A glimpse inside the giants of Alberta's wildfire fleet

When the fight against Alberta wildfires takes to the sky, airtankers are the giants of the fleet.

Airtankers have been a mainstay in Alberta's aerial firefighting arsenal for years. Following a record 2023 wildfire season, the province has plans to upgrade the fleet and add more machines to its water-bombing crews. 

Unlike smaller skimmer planes that fill their tanks with water in seconds, airtankers have a much larger payload, carrying thousands of litres of fire retardant to the flames with each mission.

Cristalle Fairbank, a pilot with Red Deer-based Air Spray Airtankers, said airtankers will always serve as "the muscle" in the fight against wildfires.

This is Fairbank's 12th season fighting fires from above, painting the forest bright red at breathtakingly low altitudes. 

"I love flying and it's an exciting type of flying to do," said Fairbank, 45. "It's all hand-flown. We don't have an autopilot. 

"We're aiming for 100 feet above the treetops." 

The most challenging hours behind the controls come when Fairbank knows the flames have put a community under threat.

Most recently, she and her crew were called to Fort McMurray to battle a fire that had forced the evacuation of thousands of residents from four neighbourhoods.

"When it's affecting life and property, it's more stressful," she said. "Knowing that they're having evacuations going on is always in the back of your mind."

Fairbank fights fires from the cockpit of a four-engine Lockheed L-188 Electra, one of two under contract to the Alberta government. 

The planes once carried around 100 passengers on commercial flights but have been repurposed as effective weapons in the wildfire fight.

Flying at speeds up to 674 kilometres per hour, they can drop 11,356 litres of retardant with each load.

WATCH | Airtanker drops payload of retardant: