A Lockheed EC-130Q1 air tanker had entered a climbing left turn after dropping retardant on a wildfire in Australia’s Snowy Mountains when it rolled left and plunged to the ground, killing all three crewmembers.
The tanker was destroyed in the Jan. 23, 2020, crash, which the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said likely occurred when the airplane stalled in turbulence resulting from strong gusting winds and mountain wave activity.2
Fire-fighting operations “necessarily take place in a high-risk environment, which requires a continued focus on risk mitigation, a responsibility that, in the Australian operating context, is shared between the tasking agency and the aircraft operator,” ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said in a statement accompanying the bureau’s final report on the accident.
Factors contributing to the accident included the “low-level wind shear and an increased tail wind component, which degraded the aircraft’s cli…
