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As someone who works and lives here in Los Angeles, last month’s Palisades and Eaton fires were more than just one of the largest disasters in U.S. history, it was up close and personal for so many. My wife and I were two of thousands of unfortunate residents who lost our home and all of our personal belongings – with the exception of two pets and a duffel bag of clothes. Thankfully, we’re safe, we have each other, and we were insured. Not everyone was so lucky. This incident will likely become one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history, with estimates suggesting the total cost to repair the damage could be over $150 billion.

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What we also know is that this disaster will not be the last one. While our obvious focus needs to begin with repairing the damage made to our community, our next response needs to be on mitigating – or even preventing – future tragedies. This assessment will highlight that we actually do have the technology, capacity, and assets to prevent another disaster – and based on the aftermath of January 2025, it’s time we invest in and deploy this much needed technology.

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I’m lucky – not only to be alive and safe – but because last year, I chose to work with a team of passionate and committed aerospace professionals dedicated to doing one thing – making aviation simpler and safer. Skyryse’s innovative and revolutionary operating system for flight – SkyOS – is currently pending FAA certification. Let me walk you through why the work we’re doing could be the difference that prevents this disaster from happening again.  

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To understand how SkyOS can prevent similar events, we must first discuss the causal factors facilitating the expansion of the L.A. fires. Interestingly, the recognition of the initial fire was not an issue in either of these fires. Yes, there is advanced observational technology that could, and should, be utilized for even greater response time, but local authorities and fire departments were aware of both the Palisades and Eaton fires almost immediately. Later I’ll walk through the unique weather and environmental conditions which existed at the time of these fires and their effect on overall response and deployment. That withstanding, the main issue in preventing the massive expansion of these fires was the lack of technology afforded these brave first responders in their current firefighting aircraft. It’s important to pause here and acknowledge our deep and genuine appreciation for all first responders. We all watched in awe and respect at the men and women risking themselves in the face of this massive fire. However, if these brave first responders had aircraft equipped with Skyryse’s existing technology to assist in the mission effectiveness of their efforts, as well as the speed and ability to get more assets on the scene, they would have not only been safer but they would have been able to prevent a vast majority of this disaster.  

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First let’s address the environmental conditions which had a major effect on the first responders ability to fight this fire. On the day of the fires, wind gusts were exceeding 60 mph. The fire was initiated at 10:30am but as the fire built momentum, firefighting aircraft were grounded before 8pm due to winds. Although not all firefighting aircraft are permitted to fly at night due to the complexity of flying with traditional aircraft controls under nighttime conditions, in this case even those that can fly at nighttime were grounded to protect pilots from worsening conditions - and likely the correct safety decision.  

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How would a fully digitized aircraft operating system, like SkyOS, installed in current firefighting aircraft have kept thousands of lives from being dramatically altered?

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SkyOS technology could have provided three key technological advancements that could have helped to mitigate this disaster. The first, and maybe most important in this specific situation, is our ability to operate the aircraft Optionally Piloted. For those less familiar with this term, this means the aircraft can be operated by a remote ground station far away from the fire, eliminating the personal risk of a pilot onboard, while still flying the entire required flight profile including the pickup of water and drop onto the flames. This allows aircraft to be continuously flying, de-risking the potential of a first responder injury and aircraft accident, as well as stopping the spread of fire over a 12 hour period with no aircraft in support. During these initial and critical hours, the overwhelming effects of multiple and persistent overhead firefighting aircraft, conducting massive well-positioned water drops, using the remote ground stations could have mitigated much of the fire’s expansion. Just to emphasize, this exponential increase in fire prevention and mitigation is all occurring while the pilots in control of these aircraft are in a safe location.

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The second game-changing improvement is SkyOS’s ability to use the most advanced onboard technology to provide precise calculations on when and where to drop the water over a fire for maximum effect. Currently, this does not exist on these firefighting helicopters.  These very talented firefighting pilots, flying in dynamic conditions, are calculating known winds, airspeed, direction of flight, and current altitude to “eyeball” the water drop. After each drop, ground crews debrief the pilot on the accuracy so that pilots can adjust their release on the next attempt.  With all the technology provided to us in our daily lives, this is clearly antiquated and we must provide our first responders with better, and we can. SkyOS is constantly calculating all environmental and aircraft conditions using the most advanced Fly-By-Wire onboard systems, combined with deterministic AI, to determine the exact GPS location to optimize the effect of each water drop. When each minute and each water drop counts to save lives, we need the most advanced technology to maximize effectiveness of these water drops to facilitate the containment of growing fires.

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Even if conditions warrant piloted operations, the 24/7 burden of these missions combined with limited pilot availability of firefighting aviation departments, is creating a necessity for single pilot operations. Regardless of the fire intensity and size, these are often demanding flight environments and place our brave first responders at risk – in both single piloted and dual piloted aircraft. One of the many first-of-its-kind safety features of SkyOS is Inherent Stability.  This feature will ensure pilots can easily maintain the aircraft in a safe and stable flight profile, freeing the pilot from the arduous task of constantly having to operate the controls of the aircraft to keep the aircraft from entering a hazardous flight condition. Consequently, this allows the pilot to focus on the most important task - the mission of effectively fighting fires, while maintaining the maximum situational awareness in a chaotic environment, allowing SkyOS to keep the aircraft (and the pilot) out of harm's way.

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To sum it up, my utmost respect and gratitude goes to all first responders in this situation, to include the pilots of the fire fighting aircraft. However, we should take the time to critically assess the aftermath of these fires and commit ourselves to preventing them from happening again. Without question these pilots deserve the very best technology we can provide them, and the citizens they are protecting deserve the same. The solution is not years away, we have the ability and technology to make a difference, now. Skyryse offers the most advanced aircraft technology existing today. Singularly created, tested, and developed to make aviation safer for all – in this case benefiting the firefighting aviation community, as well as the community they serve.

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