AT-802 makes history over Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Louisiana

Today, Graham and I flew our A36 to Houma, Louisiana to meet with the AT-802 oil spill dispersal group. With the good graces of BP, the U.S. Coast Guard and the AT-802 operating company, we interviewed the principals of the operation. Yesterday, an AT-802 made the first single engine aircraft oil spill dispersant application, 14 miles offshore of Louisiana, that followed the mandates of the North American oil spill management industry. The effort was a culmination of 16 years of work to bring the single engine tanker ag-plane to the oil spill environment. As unfortunate as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is, located in the Mississippi Canyon of the Gulf of Mexico, it has provided an opportunity for a “proof of concept” for using aircraft like the AT-802 to disperse the oil.

During our visit, everything I witnessed pointed toward a massive, joint effort to resolve the problem. BP has literally “pulled out all the stops”, so to speak, to get this monster under control. The role of the AT-802 is a surgical strike procedure just before the floating oil makes land. Its maneuverability and speed allow it to work close to shore, following the guidance of the spotter aircraft flying above and behind it.

It all boils down to the AT-802 stopping the oil that gets past all other efforts, which are many and varied, from burning to skimming, to large tanker aircraft spraying dispersant on wide open areas.

After I write and finalize the article, you can visit agairupdate.com to read how the diversity of ag-aircraft continues to help protect the environment. Which reminds me of a t-shirt I saw at a state ag-av convention that stated, “We have always been green.”

In closing, until now it has been an inalterable safety rule in the oil industry to use only multi-engine aircraft with two pilots on board for oil dispersal spraying. Even though there are two pilots in the dual cockpit, the single engine AT-802 with its dependable Pratt & Whitney turboprop engine, steps outside of these limits. BP’s willingness to allow the AT-802 to attempt to stop the oil from going ashore demonstrates the company’s all-out effort to protect the environment. I have full confidence in the aircraft and its pilots’ abilities to do the job at hand.