Oil spill response is a time-critical factor in mitigating the spread and damage from large, or small, spills. The most common methods for spill clean-up are material recovery, in-situ burning, and dispersal. In many cases, the petroleum product may not be completely recoverable and therefore spill response personnel must decide if in-situ burning or dispersal is appropriate. 

Dispersal is the process of breaking-up the spill up to facilitate the bio-degradation of the petroleum product. This process is the specialty of aircraft. Airplanes and helicopters can provide rapid coverage of spill areas with oil dispersant materials, sprayed from the aircraft. The helicopter specializes in targeting spills located within rivers, streams, in-land and tidal wetlands.