CalFire helicopters cost twice as much as expected
By Adam Ashton, Sacramento Bee
CalFire wants to swap its fleet of “Apocalypse Now”-era firefighting helicopters for something a little more “Zero Dark Thirty.”
The trouble is the machines the department is ready to buy cost twice as much as the Legislature expected when it set aside money two years ago to start buying new choppers.
It took three rounds of bidding over two years to complete a process that rejected the low bidder, Italian manufacturer AgustaWestland, each time.
