[2025 National Audit] No Nighttime Wildfire Deployment for Large Helicopter 'S-64'... Why?

It has been found that the large helicopter 'S-64' has never been deployed for nighttime wildfire suppression. The reason this helicopter has not been used at night is that there are no pilots qualified for night flights.

According to data submitted by Assemblyman Chung Heeyong, a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans & Fisheries Committee (People Power Party, Goryeong County, Seongju County, Chilgok County), from the Korea Forest Service on October 20, there are currently seven wildfire suppression helicopters owned by the Korea Forest Service that are capable of night operations: three Surion helicopters and four S-64 helicopters.

Among these, the S-64 is a large wildfire suppression helicopter (with a water capacity of 8,000 liters) manufactured by Ericsson in the United States, which the Korea Forest Service has been introducing sequentially since 2018. The purchase price of each helicopter exceeds 20 million dollars. To date, the total budget spent by the Korea Forest Service on acquiring the S-64 amounts to 85.63 million dollars (122 billion won).

However, it has been confirmed that the S-64 has never been deployed to a nighttime wildfire suppression scene since its introduction. The reason is that there are no pilots at the Korea Forest Service qualified to fly this model at night, making nighttime operation impossible. Pilots must acquire a separate qualification to fly the S-64 at night, but currently, there are no pilots who have obtained this qualification.

The Korea Forest Service plans to train pilots for nighttime wildfire suppression missions between July and November this year, with the aim of deploying the S-64 for nighttime wildfire suppression starting in February next year. In this regard, Assemblyman Chung points out that, considering the S-64 was first introduced in 2018, the training of pilots for night flights has been delayed.

For example, during the wildfire that occurred in April this year at Hamji Mountain in Buk-gu, Daegu, two Surion helicopters were deployed for nighttime wildfire suppression. The Surion has a water capacity of 2,000 liters, which is one-fourth that of the S-64. If the S-64 had been available for deployment at the time, the efficiency of the suppression efforts could have been significantly improved.

Assemblyman Chung stated, "It is crucial that wildfire suppression is carried out continuously, regardless of day or night, and wildfire suppression helicopters play a key role in this process. Although the Korea Forest Service is somewhat late in its efforts, it must ensure that the S-64 can operate at night by next spring at the latest, so that it can establish a thorough wildfire response system without any gaps."