Any of you fire types know about this????

[BrianGMFS]

A tanker pilot was rescued Tuesday after his aircraft (type shown at right) went down while fighting a wildfire in northern Nevada.

According to Jamie Thompson, spokesperson for the US Bureau of Land Management, the AT-802A tanker pilot was extricated from the wreckage by ground firefighters, He was transported to a local hospital where he was treated and released, he said.

"Other than being pretty well soaked with slurry and aviation fuel, he was OK," Thompson said. "They cleaned him up and sent him home."

The aircraft was under contract from Missoula-based Minuteman Aerial Application at the time of the accident.

Nellie Lynn, executive assistant for the company, said the man was an experienced tanker pilot, but declined to identify him, according to the Associated Press.

"He walked away from it in pretty good shape," Lynn said.

It is still not clear under what conditions the tanker went down.

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 806MA        Make/Model: AT8T      Description: AT-802A AIR TRACTOR
  Date: 07/17/2007     Time: 0241

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: Serious     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
  City: WINNEMUCCA   State: NV   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT CRASHED DURING FIRE FIGHTING OPERATION, 20 MILES FROM WINNEMUCCA,
  NV

Brian

[airtac]

WHERE'S MAXWELL???
Dunno who was flying this one---I'll look at  some morning stuff---hope it wasn't a friend--glad whoever it was walked....................

[Mike]

Actually, Jim....

It was I guy we know. I'll tell you in an email, ok?!

[Baradium]

Actually, Jim....

It was I guy we know. I'll tell you in an email, ok?!

That's just mean there!


Glad he walked away...

Hey, at least he can still say it was a good landing!

[Mike]

I know how it feels to break an aircraft. Gotta give him a few days to get over it and be able to laugh it off.

I am sure the forest service will start an investigation. Not fun, either way.....

[TheSoccerMom]

I'd always heard what a tough machine that was, but now I am a firm believer.  Impressive! 

So, there has been some good news in an otherwise difficult, and sad, summer thus far. 

I am thankful!! 

[TheSoccerMom]

Hi DonYan!   

The accidents get "investigated" in differing ways, and levels....  and, incredibly enough, plenty of the in-house (i.e., government-owned aircraft) ones never get looked into AT ALL.

Don't even get me going on that.

And, as far as I know, most of the inverstigators used on these types of accidents are NOT pilots....  I hope I am wrong in this case, I really do, but I would be hugely surprised if they had a bunch of people with time in the machine.

The pilot thinks he must have hit his head pretty hard, because he can't recall some things, but he did walk away from the airplane and was halfway to the road when the fire people racing up the hill to save him, rushed by.  He said "Hey!  Where you guys going?!"  And they yelled, "To go save the pilot in that airplane!"  And he said "I AM the pilot in that airplane!"

Banged up or not, he still had his sense of humor.   

They made him take a shower at the hospital, because he was soaked in jet fuel and fire retardant.  He's one lucky hombre...  that airplane took care of him, no doubt about that in my mind.

It's too bad the fire he was working, came up and burned over the accident site later on.  The airplane didn't burn when he crashed (another good thing).

I'm so thankful he is alright.   

[BrianGMFS]

If I recall right....  all Aircraft NTSB investigators must have at least a commercial pilots licence...

Brian

[TheSoccerMom]

That's the problem, right there.....  the NTSB and the FAA tend to stay as HANDS-OFF as possible in these cases...  they want nothing to do with public use aircraft...   hence the mish-mash of inconsistent results.

I had a friend and co-worker who went off the runway many years ago, and he HIRED his OWN retired NTSB guy, to come in and investigate the affair, because the in-house clowns screwed it up so badly.  I could go on for weeks with many more examples...  plenty of horror stories...  check out the May 2007 issue of Business and Commercial Aviation for an article about this very subject...  it's titled:  "Accident Prone Flight Departments"...  not to say this fire guy was part of that, as he is a private contractor pilot, but that article deals with the IN-HOUSE mentality that needs some standardization, badly.

It's quite the set-up.  Nobody running the boat.....

[G-man]

That's the problem, right there.....  the NTSB and the FAA tend to stay as HANDS-OFF as possible in these cases...  they want nothing to do with public use aircraft...   hence the mish-mash of inconsistent results.

Or politics comes into play......I lost a friend on 7-23-07 on Kauai, HI, the full accident report has yet to be released 4 years later......

Or better yet---tell me what is wrong with this picture...fatal accident on Kauai 12-25-05 doing fire suppression...........look it up

Politics, politics, politics