A U.S. Senator Pushed to Cut Firefighting Aircraft Inspections the Same Month His Former Company Failed One

ProPublica reports that Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT) pushed to eliminate U.S. Forest Service airworthiness inspections for firefighting aircraft in March-April 2025—the same period his former company, Bridger Aerospace, failed an inspection after inspectors discovered a crack in a scooper's wing. Sheehy founded and still owns significant stock in Bridger (held in revocable blind trusts managed by associates of his brother), which has received over $235 million in Forest Service contracts since 2021. The reporting is exceptionally strong: ProPublica obtained heavily redacted FOIA documents, interviewed five current and former Forest Service officials, cited expert testimony from former aviation maintenance managers, and documented that a draft executive order eliminating inspections was edited by Sheehy's policy adviser and a Bridger lobbyist. The article provides substantial historical context—the Forest Service's inspection program was created after two fatal 2002 crashes caused by undetected wing cracks, and since implementation in 2010 has reduced accidents from an average of four deaths annually (1993-2010) to fewer than one per year (2011-2023). Sheehy's office declined interviews but his spokesperson defended the effort to eliminate inspections as removing a 'relic of a bygone era,' and stated the senator moved assets to blind trusts to eliminate conflicts of interest—a claim disputed by ethics experts cited in the article. Watch for any legislative action on fire service consolidation or inspection reform, responses from the Department of Agriculture and Forest Service, and oversight scrutiny of Sheehy's financial interests in Bridger.