Update: Friday, Jan. 24, 10:10 a.m.:
The American tanker plane that crashed while fighting Australian wildfires had just dropped a load of retardant on a fire before it went down in New South Wales state, investigators said Friday.
The crash of the C-130 Hercules tanker Thursday killed Capt. Ian H. McBeth, 44, of Great Falls, Montana; First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, of Buckeye, Arizona; and Flight Engineer Rick A. DeMorgan Jr., 43, of Navarre, Florida, their employer, Canada-based Coulson Aviation, said in a statement.
UPDATED STORY: Australia Works To Recover Bodies Of 3 Americans From Air Tanker Crash
Original story:
Three American firefighting airplane crew members were killed Thursday when the C-130 Hercules aerial water tanker they were in crashed while battling wildfires in southeastern Australia, officials said.
CALFIRE officials said the aircraft they were on had been stationed at the Ramona Air Attack base for pilot training in August of 2019.
"It's incredibly devastating. Our pilots here are very shook up. The firefighting community is very tight and when it comes to aviation, the aviation community is incredibly tight as well, so having those two components combined together, I know our pilots here today are pretty shook up," said CALFIRE Captain Thomas Shoots.
The names of the crew members have not been released, but in a statement Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called them heroes.
Approximately 100 American firefighters have traveled to Australia to help battle the bushfires there. 20 are from California. So far, the Americans who have gone are mostly federal firefighters. It is unclear if the three who died are federal firefighters or aviation contractors.
"Ultimately our job fire fighting is just inherently dangerous. When you're talking about ground resources, it's quite the struggle, but when you add in the aviation component, the conditions that these guys are flying in with the winds, these guys are flying in with the poor visibility, the crazy terrain, you really have a lot of things stacked up against you," Shoots said.
