BOISE — KTVB now knows what pilots were up to after viewers shared dramatic video with us that depicts planes plunging into Lucky Peak Reservoir and abruptly flying off Sunday.
It was a bit unnerving for people out on the water, but the planes were actually a part of a wildfire suppression mission.
"How do they know there is not going to be a boat there?" one of the boaters in the video asks.
It turns out the aircraft are called scooper planes, and they were borrowed from our neighbors up north.
"So, we don't use them often, they come down from Canada, there's only about three or four in the whole nation," said Keri Steneck with the Boise BLM.
The planes were on a mission Sunday to help battle the Leone Fire, which broke out near the Boise Airport Sunday evening.
Scooper planes are especially efficient when a wildfire is burning near a water source, like Sunday's blaze, because of its quick turnaround time.
"You know, five to 10 minutes to get to the water source and get that water on the fire," explained Steneck.
They carry up to 1,600 gallons of water and can be a good alternative to dumping fire retardant on flames.
"So, if there is a water source nearby we definitely don't want to contaminate that, and so that's an opportunity to utilize water instead of fire retardant," Steneck said.
And as the video shows, the planes look to be flying pretty close to boaters, but they are actually farther than they appear.
"We work with the Army Corps of Engineers and Ada County to handle the public safety when we deal with reservoirs," Steneck said.
The county and Army Corps of Engineers quarantine an area of the reservoir that's off limits to boaters to ensure safety, but it still makes for a striking visual to people nearby.
"We always have people that are parked getting video footage and camera shots when we are doing things on fire especially when it's aircraft, it's something people don't see every day, so we are pretty used to that," Steneck said.
As for the Leone Fire, it burned around 1,600 acres and was controlled by Monday night.