South Australian Country Fire Service Promotions Unit

Air Operations
Using the Australasian Inter-service Incident Management System (AIIMS)

Air Operations are part of the Operations function.

There will be an Air Operations Manager whose role it is to develop an Air Operations Plan, conduct strategic decision making relating to the use of aircraft, attend incident management briefings, liaise with the Incident Management Team and request logistical support such as additional foam and fuel.

An Aircraft Officers role is to request logistical arrangements, such as transport, accommodation and catering for pilots and the mixing crew. Additionally, the Aircraft Officer coordinates all the reconnaissance, intelligence, observation and tactical flights.

An Air Base Managers role is to support aircraft by refuelling, filling aircraft with water and foam or retardent.

Air Attack Supervisors liaise with pilots of bomber aircraft and with Sector Commanders to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the bombing operations, including the laying of retardant, accuracy and effectiveness of drops.

An Air Observer is supported by Air Operations, however they report to the Situation Unit in Planning and provide valuable information about fire behaviour, topography and vegetation in addition to providing plots of the perimeter of the fire. A Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) heat-sensing camera can be used and data from this is combined with GPS information and provided to the Mapping Support Team to incorporate into maps that are then used by crews in the field and by the Incident Management Team.