LAKE ELSINORE -- The owner of a giant firefighting amphibious aircraft that is supposed to dock in the lake for the summer said the ship should arrive Sunday afternoon.

Wayne Coulson, whose company owns the Hawaii Mars plane, said he signed an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service on Friday afternoon that clears the way for the plane to operate from Lake Elsinore. The service has contracted the aircraft and its crew to help fight large wildfires in national forests this summer and fall.

Coulson said the Mars is scheduled to take off from its base on Vancouver Island in British Columbia early Sunday morning and should splash down in Lake Elsinore between 4 and 5 p.m. Sunday afternoon. He said the plane would be "mission ready" by Wednesday.

City officials were unable to confirm the schedule and forest service representatives could not be reached. The arrival of the tanker has been postponed several times over the last month while federal officials conducted inspections and worked through bureaucratic issues.

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