“Too bad the boaters couldn’t figure out what the planes were trying to do -”
In the video the plane makes a steep left turn just above the water.
And I’m guessing that the plane diverted to another place in the lake to get water to avoid the boats. So I’ll give the boaters a bit of a break on this. “Oh - he’s getting water from way over there - we’re good!”
I watched a couple of helicopters getting water from a small lake with their bags slung from a cable. I’m guessing every little bit helps, but seeing the massive smoke from the fire those huge bags seemed like a thimble-full of water.