• The CEO of an aerial firefighting company said drones are a major problem for its pilots.
• Bridger Aerospace has sent two "Super Scooper" planes to help tackle the LA wildfires.
• Last week, a drone collided with a Super Scooper over LA, grounding the plane for days.

The CEO of a company that flies "Super Scooper" firefighting planes said one of his biggest worries is drones crashing into his planes during emergencies like the Los Angeles wildfires.

As the fires raged last week, a consumer drone collided with Quebec-1, one of only two Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper aircraft fighting the Palisades fire.

The planes didn't belong to Bridger Aerospace, but the company's interim CEO Sam Davis said it's something he's long feared.

"My greatest fear — and I lose sleep at night — is something like that drone strike that happened on the Quebec Scooper, because you can't do anything about that," Davis told Business Insider in an interview.

There were no injuries in the incident, but it took out a chunk of the firefighting capacity during one of the most costly natural disasters in US history.

The FBI announced a search for the owner of the drone, which punched a fist-sized hole in the plane's wing, grounding it for days.

The rogue drone was unsettling news for Davis' company, which has sent two of its own Super Scoopers — along with their pilots and maintenance crews — to join the firefighting efforts.

"We all breathed a sigh of relief that our Quebec compatriots up there were safe because bad things could have happened," he said.

Davis said their pilots train for this sort of scenario, but had the drone struck an engine, the result could have been catastrophic.

He also said that unauthorized drones are being spotted during wildfire emergencies every year, which results in aircraft being grounded until they get the all-clear.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the one in the Palisades was trying to get some great footage of a scooper, and they got more than they bargained for," he added.

The Super Scoopers are a spectacular sight, with a similar flying style to combat aircraft.

The planes are meant to skim the water at speed, Davis said, "fill up tanks in 10 to 12 seconds — 1400 gallons of water — and continuously scoop and drop water on one tank of fuel."

It takes a special kind of mindset to pilot a Super Scooper, he said, adding: "Every pilot I know that does this is just a little bit crazy in a good way, because they like the thrill — but they're extremely highly trained professionals."

Interference doesn't just come from rogue drones.

"It's the same on water operations," Davis said. "We've had jet skis wanting to get on Instagram, videoing our scoopers, racing alongside of them."

After the collision last week, the Federal Aviation Administration warned that interfering with firefighting on public lands is a federal crime punishable by up to a year in prison.

It said there's also a civil penalty of up to $75,000 for interfering with firefighters during temporary flight restrictions.

But Davis urged people to also think about the human cost of their actions.

"They could cost somebody their lives," he said. "They can cost millions of dollars in damage."

People seeking out cool footage in these situations, he added, is the "last thing we need."