View from above: Pilot coordinates firefighting efforts from the sky
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October 22, 2026 12:00 AM
Circling for hours in a turboprop Twin Commander above the Skillet Fire near Olney last summer, Kait King watched thousands of acres of smoldering heat and flame in the dense forests along the border of Flathead and Lincoln counties.
It wasn't the first fire King has watched burn from 2,500 feet above earth, but it was the first time she had watched one burning so close to home. Her flight route took her over the road she drove to church each Sunday in the summer, and at the hastily assembled base camp, her friends were delivering meals to firefighters.
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