Probe into fatal crash of plane fighting bush fires complicated by dangers

MELBOURNE/SYDNEY • Australian officials worked yesterday to extricate the bodies of three US firefighters from a plane that crashed in remote bush land, as the area's active bush fire status complicated an investigation into the accident.

Officials said it was still too early to speculate on the cause of the crash of the C-130 Hercules tanker plane on Thursday, killing its entire crew, just after it dumped a large load of retardant on a huge wildfire in a national park.

"We are very much into the evidence-gathering phase of the investigation," said Mr Greg Hood, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is leading the investigation. He added that "we have nothing to suggest there was a systemic fault", when asked if he believed other aircraft in use were safe.

Coulson Aviation, the private Canadian firm that owned the plane and employed its crew, yesterday said all three were former US military members with extensive flight experience: Captain Ian McBeth, 44, First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, and Flight Engineer Rick DeMorgan Jr, 43.

Firefighters in Australia held a minute's silence and flags on official buildings in New South Wales (NSW) state, where the plane crashed, were flown at half-mast as a mark of respect yesterday.

"We will forever be indebted to the enormous contribution and indeed the ultimate sacrifice that's been paid as a result of these extraordinary individuals doing a remarkable job," NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said at an event near Sydney airport for 32 US firefighters who were returning home after weeks on duty in Australia.

ATSB investigators had to be escorted to the crash site by firefighters yesterday and police were still in the process of securing the area, Mr Hood said. Little of the plane was intact and potential hazards included aviation fuel and unexploded pressurised canisters.

Mr Hood said the ATSB expected to retrieve the plane's black box cockpit voice recorder, use a drone to 3D map the site, analyse both air traffic control and the plane's data and review the weather at the time of the crash. "We understand there were several witnesses to the accident," he said. "We hope that some of the witness statements will be able to shed light on the sequence of events following the dropping of the retardant."

A team from Coulson Aviation is due to arrive in Australia today, along with the aircraft history and maintenance records.

Coulson grounded its other large air tankers after the crash but said yesterday they would be returning to work "in the very near future".

There have been two previous crashes involving C-130 Hercules aircraft while fighting wildfires. In a 2002 accident in California, the plane's wings folded upward, breaking off before the fuselage rolled and hit the ground upside down, killing all three crew members. In 2012, another C-130 crashed in South Dakota, killing four of the six crew, in an accident that was later determined to be weather-related.

"Unfortunately, aircraft are one of the riskiest parts of wildland firefighting," said Dr Eric Kennedy, a disaster and emergency management expert at York University in Toronto, Canada.

Dr Kennedy said there were many possible causes for Thursday's crash, but noted that a well-known risk in the C-130 fleet was metal fatigue-induced wing failure.

"Reduced visibility, high turbulence, and low flying can all be contributing risk factors for air tanker crashes," he said in an e-mail.

The plane crash took the death toll for Australia's devastating bush fire season to 32, including eight firefighters. The wildfires have also killed millions of animals, razed thousands of homes and destroyed an area about one-third the size of Germany since September.

Around 250 firefighters from the United States and Canada have undertaken deployments in Australia since the fires began.

A 41-strong US team arrived in Melbourne yesterday to help in eastern Victoria, the state's Country Fire Authority said.

While fire conditions eased in south-eastern Australia, Sydney was choking on a new smoke haze, blown in by a baking hot wind from the fires in the south of the state.

In NSW, firefighters were tackling 58 blazes with only two at "watch and act" category, meaning there was no immediate threat. In Victoria state, all 52 fires were rated at the lowest level.

REUTERS