This Day in History: 2020-01-04

Urgent approvals for firefighting aircraft were announced on 4 January 2020, as Australia grappled with a devastating bushfire season. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the Government was preparing to lease additional waterbombing aircraft for the states and territories to deploy in firefighting efforts. The additional units would comprise two long-range fixed-wing aircraft (DC-10s) with 36,000 litres capacity, and two medium-range fixed-wing large air tankers with 11,000 litres capacity. Source: transparency.gov.au website