This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Captain RK Smithley, a pilot flying McDonnell Douglas DC-10 widebody airliners ... ended up in the air fighting fire, so my career has come ...

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Captain RK Smithley, a pilot flying McDonnell Douglas DC-10 widebody ... biggest tanker out here. This fire is unprecedented. In 10 years ...

Captain RK Smithley flies McDonnell Douglas DC-10 fire ... re the biggest tanker out here. January is an odd time for wildfires in California This fire is unprecedented. In 10 years of doing ...

Captain RK Smithley flies McDonnell Douglas DC-10 fire ... re the biggest tanker out here. January is an odd time for wildfires in California This fire is unprecedented. In 10 years of doing ...

I'm a third-generation ground firefighter who ended up in the air fighting ... The DC-10 is a capable airframe for our size, at 420,000 pounds. We're dropping 85,000 pounds of fire retardant on our ...

10 Tanker’s DC-10 planes are now responding to the Hughes Fire in the Los Angeles area ... R.K. Smithley piloted one of those planes when they were fighting the devastating Palisades and Eaton ...