aircraft firegeezer on 07 Aug 2008 08:21 am
Helicopter Crash Update
THE SIKORSKY S-61 THAT WENT DOWN TUESDAY NIGHT in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest is one of 12 helicopters operated by Carson Helicopters. According to a company spokesman, all of them are currently being used in the western region. One of the two-copilots is among the missing and presumed dead passengers.
Along with rescuers, inspectors from FAA and NTSB are en route to the crash site which is practically non-accessible. The terrain is extremely rugged and heavily forested causing a slowed search for the nine missing victims. A Forest Service spokeswoman said that a rescue crew had made it to the scene and was able to treat the four survivors but it was at least two hours before they were able to get them out. Only one of the nine others has been located and his death confirmed. The other eight are still missing.
This photo provided by the Redding Record Searchlight
shows what is believed to be the crash site identified by
GPS coordinates supplied by the Forestry Service.
Most of the 11 firefighting crew on board were employees of Grayback Forestry of Merlin, Oregon, a private contracting company. The officials with Grayback are contacting relatives of the crew members asking for personal items that can be used to assist in identifying crash victims. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that:
To battle wildfires, firefighting agencies around the country are increasingly using private contractors. The Forest Service spent $127 million on contractors to fight California wildfires in fiscal 2007, said spokesman John Heil. Private companies provide everything from aircraft to water trucks to catering and portable hand-washing stations at base camps.
Deborah Miley, the executive director of a private firefighting industry group called the National Wildfire Suppression Association, estimated that 40 percent of the personnel and equipment used to put out wildfires across the country comes from private contractors.
Tuesday’s crash was the worst involving firefighting aircraft, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. In 1972, seven firefighters perished in a crash in the Los Padres National Forest.
The Associated Press has this early video report:
