I was consulting with a company off the Diagonal HWY between Boulder and Longmont when the 2002 fire near Pinewood Springs happened. There had been tankers flying out of the Jeffco Airport to fight the fire. This was just after a C130 in California had a wing break off. I was with a person who was an ex-Navy P3 pilot watching a flight go over. He said something like “I wish I could be doing that”. I said something like “those are really old airframes and carrying huge loads, an accident waiting to happen”. It turns out that flight we were watching crashed killing all onboard.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/19/national/main515710.shtml
These pilots are amazing.
They carry huge loads in old planes, fly close to the mountains to get close to the drop zone, suffer bad visibility, unknown winds and downdrafts...