- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
STATE: Cal Fire airtanker may have hit tree before fatal crash
A preliminary report released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board said that an airtanker fighting a fire last week near Yosemite National Park may have hit a tree before crashing into a hillside, killing the pilot.
San Jose resident Geoffrey “Craig” Hunt, 62, of San Jose died in the crash, which occurred on the afternoon of Oct. 7 while he was working on the Dog Rock Fire and flying Tanker 81, a Grumman S-2T tanker.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to the California crash site on Oct. 9 to lead the investigation, officials said.
On Wednesday, the agency released a preliminary report, which it noted is subject to change as the investigation continues.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board narrative, Hunt's plane arrived on scene and made one drop on the fire before going to the Columbia Airport to be reloaded with fire retardant.
In addition to Hunt's airtanker, two other aircraft were involved in the firefighting effort that day – an orbiting aerial controller that coordinated aerial operations with ground units and a “lead plane” that tracked ahead of the tanker to define the route and the drop initiation point, according to the report.
After Hunt returned to the fire scene, he coordinated his next drop with the orbiting aerial coordinator, and was following the lead airplane, the preliminary report said.
“The crew of the lead airplane did not see the accident,” the narrative explained. “The crew of the controller airplane reported that the accident airplane may have struck a tree with its wing, which separated from the airplane. Both aircrews reported that there was smoke in the area, but visibility was good.”
The report stated that the crash occurred at around 4:30 p.m. that day, with the tanker “destroyed by impact with terrain and a postcrash fire.”
In response to the preliminary report's release, Chief Ken Pimlott, director of Cal Fire, issued a statement in which he pointed out, “Aerial firefighting is not simply flying from one airport to another.”
Pimlott continued, “The wildland firefighting environment is a challenging one, both on the ground and in the air.”
He said Cal Fire looks forward to the final National Transportation Safety Board report to see if they can use the findings to help mitigate the inherent dangers of the job.
“We owe that to Craig, who traded his life in an effort to protect the lives of others,” Pimlott said.
Hunt had worked for 13 years for DynCorp International, which is under contract with Cal Fire. He had been working out of Cal Fire's Hollister Air Attack Base.
The crash led Cal Fire to calling for a short-term safety stand down of its remaining 22 Grumman S-2T airtankers, which was lifted a few days later.
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