Bambi Bucket : Indian Air Force
Indian Air Force’s MI 17 V5 helicopter was deployed to extinguish the raging forest fires in Nainital and the helicopter used a “Bambi Bucket”.
- Bambi Bucket is also known as helicopter bucket or a It is a specialised aerial firefighting tool which has been in use since the 1980s.
- It is suspended by cable under a chopper, and which can be filled by lowering into a river or pond before being flown above a fire and discharged aerially by opening a valve at the bottom of the bucket.
- It is essentially a lightweight collapsible container that releases water from underneath a helicopter to targeted areas.
- One of its key features is that it can be quickly and easily filled.
- The bucket can be filled from various sources, including lakes and swimming pools, which allows firefighters to swiftly refill it and return to the target area.
- It can be stored within the helicopter until development and it discharges a solid column of water, “resulting in a more accurate and effective water dump, less evaporation on the descent and greater impact force.
- It is especially helpful in fighting wildfires that are difficult or impossible to reach from the ground.
