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From: het3@panix.com (Harry MF Teasley)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Scuba Scoop
Date: 4 Nov 1996 21:48:31 -0500

Will Wilson bequeathed:
> I am here in CA listening to my friends tell me about a scuba divers
> body which was found in the Malibu fire remains who was apparently
> picked up mid-dive by a fire fighting airplane and dumped on the fire. I
> have serious doubts about the validity of this story. Please back me
> up, or tell me the truth. Many thanks. Wldbyst.

Here's a post I saved from a while back. Should be voracious enough to bludgeon your friends with. Also try the faq, or www.urbanlegends.com; there's plenty there.

There have been some recent posts to rec.aviation.military in which the old UL about air tankers scooping up divers are cited ("dead diver found on hillside after air tanker drops water on it to fight fire"). The posts mentioned France and Greece as the locale and the Canadair CL-215 air tanker (the most widely used tanker with the capability of scooping water) as the offender.

As it happens, I am currently involved in a project under which my employer is considering financing the acquisition of a CL-415 (improved version of the CL-215) by a country in the Mediterranean. So I've had several opportunities to personally inspect various examples of both the CL-215 and the CL-415. I also have some technical documentation and contacts at Canadair.

The scoop doors are little hinged affairs with a cross-section of 76.2mm x 127mm (ie 3inch x 5inch). Moreoever, each scoop has grid of vanes inside it to help guide the water flow, so that the actual openings through which water is collected have a cross-section of roughly 1inch square.

Some easily available references: _Flight International_, 11-17 October 1995, has an evaluation of the CL-415 that includes a cut-away which shows the location and relative size of the scoops. No scale is given, but the relative size is clear (you can barely see the things). _Air Pictorial_, May 1996, has a history of the CL-215 and CL-415 aircraft, withdetailed plans for the CL-415, which also show the size of the scoops. These plans are to scale (they are intended for model builders).

Stefano

Harry "Fires Rage Along Coast. Gustafson Goes Into Hiding" Teasley