Global SuperTanker Services, LLC is pleased to confirm the Spirit of John Muir’s arrival in Israel.
Just 24 hours after receiving an urgent request from the Government of Israel to fight devastating wildfires in the country, the world’s largest, fastest, and longest-range aerial firefighting asset is on-site.
After flying nonstop at nearly 600 miles per hour, the firefighting B747 has joined a team of Israeli and international firefighters to halt the spread of a series of massive fires that have prompted thousands of evacuations and destroyed hundreds of homes.
Global SuperTanker’s highly-qualified team mobilized from their Colorado Springs base and took flight less than twelve hours after receiving an emergency request for assistance from Israel on Thanksgiving morning.
“Our team is committed to providing assistance to our friends in Israel for as long as it takes to gain control of or extinguish these devastating fires,” said Jim Wheeler, President and CEO of Global SuperTanker. “We are prepared to stay in Israel for as long as we are needed, but we hope that the SuperTanker will provide the force multiplier to end these devastating fires in a very short timeframe,” added Wheeler.
The Spirit of John Muir is the world’s youngest Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT), and has almost twice the capacity of the next biggest aerial tanker. The John Muir is capable of delivering single or multiple segmented drops totaling nearly 20,000 gallons of water, suppressant or fire retardant, either of which can be released at variable rates, producing a tailored response to the firefighting need.
“We are honored to be able to assist the people of Israel in this challenging time,” said Harry Toll, Managing Partner of Alterna Capital Partners LLC, whose portfolio company, Cyterna Air, LLC, owns Global SuperTanker. “We are enormously proud of the Global SuperTanker team and its supporters, and we look forward to helping many more people in the U.S. and abroad in the years to come.”
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