News in that three Firefighters from the US were killed when their water tanker aircraft crashed enroute to the fire front. My thoughts and sympathies to their families and many thanks to those who are still over here helping us out with our infernos.

Wow. Prayers for their families!

Sad deal. I hope flying it to Australia didn’t affect maintenance schedules.

Sorry to hear that. A buddy is down there fighting fires, he used to be a smokejumper but now stays on the ground. Prayers to the aircrew and the ground crew and their families.

Prayers on the way.

Very sad to hear...

Thoughts and prayers from Iowa. There are truly great people out there who largely go unnoticed until something like this happens. My thanks to them all.

Condolences to their families. Sadly they join a number of others who've died fighting these fires.

Dang. Condolences.

C-130 - N134CG, was a 40 yr old airframe, chance wings may have folded due to metal fatigue.

crash site:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-23/large-air-tanker-c-130-water-bomber-crash-cooma/11894892




The bird arrived in Aug. in prep for the season and is said to have had all the required approvals
before commencing ops.

I have a bud who retired from the air force about 4 years ago and now drives a converted c130 for firefighting out west. He's told me numerous times how dangerous it is once the aircraft takes on a load of fire retardant. Prayers for the families.

Maybe, but professionals don’t guess, they wait for the facts.

RIP

Professionals still speculate without drawing conclusions.

noted C130 operators with decades of experience
have done just that - citing likely causes relating to C130s and firebombing.

Re: Tim Collins of Upstream Aviation,
40 years experience flying C-130s..

"There are a handful of scenarios that could have happened with the most likely being the aircraft
could no longer handle the conditions.

The stress on the aircraft becomes too much and it breaks up in flight [is the most likely],"

You have ZERO idea what happened based on ZERO information given in the press... speculation is based on a degree of information.. the only “information” we have is it crashed.

Yours isn’t speculation it’s a wild-azzed-guess.

So we have firm evidence of a crash
Upon which C130 operators with decades
of experience have shared their speculation
as to the cause.

Why are you so uptight about it?

Your self agrandizing pontification is based in nothing and at the expense of three dead Americans.

How do you get agrandizing pontification out of
What is ordinary speculation as to cause of crash?

Are you saying ATSB dont speculate while conducting
a thorough investigation?

“Ordinary speculation”is based on a number of facts... we only have one: it crashed. The only thing left to conclude is either you’re a psychic, or FOS.

Wrong.. we have more known and worth considering facts than you are aware of.

Facts apon which 'ordinary speculation" can be mounted aside from a confirmed crash, are..

- airframe is 40 yr old
- wings have folded on another C130 water bomber during FF ops.

Airframe history and history of crashes involving C130s and especially modified WB versions,
do form part of reasonable speculation.





One dont need to be psychic to narrow causes down
and speculate from there.
ie: machine failure, pilot failure,

Authorities quickly speculated that fuel may have been
the cause and set about checking such sources ASAP
to ensure other aircraft were not at the same potential risk.


.

It serves no good purpose to pre-judge until the investigation is completed. Damn shame is what it is. RIP and I hope the families will be well compensated by the Aussies.

Speculations are not final judgements or conclusions.

there is always speculation in the industry
as to the most likely causes of air crashes.

Industry folk for the most part, dont seem to get
all irate - emotionally worked up about it like Brad.

Is it not reasonable to assume that these US fire fighters went there as on-ground operating troops? If so, why would they then be up in that airplane as passengers in such high risk circumstances?

CCCC,

The three were the dedicated flight crew
of the Coulson operated water bomber.

Thanks Starman. I had not seen or figured that in the previous posts. This is a sad development - very sorry for their families.

Brave men who know each time they go up it may be their last...

and this time it was... condolences to their families and loved ones..

may the Good Lord Bless each one of them and their families...

Last fall I went thru the little Aerial Fire Fighting Museum there in Greybow Wyoming...

across the field, they were a number of C 130 air frames...

they had a memorial to the last air crash of a tanker crew that went down..

it was a 130 and the reason for the crash was airframe fatigue right were the wings join the fuselage...

the plane was descending on a run, and the wing broke off... no recovery from that...

and in it went, killing everyone on board...

The US Government need to order developed and designed AC for fire fighting, instead of converting cheap old used Military
A/C that had been retired due to air frame fatigue..and have just been refurbished....

Hey Seafire, couldn't agree more with you. Although I'd hope Australia would be reviewing this themselves. If a collaborative effort was to present itself, I'd hope the relevant parties would jump at the chance.

In footage on the news today it looks like it hit the ground pretty hard with just the tail section intact