On Wednesday, January 22nd, Coulson Aviation USA Inc., based in Portland, Oregon, released information regarding the crash of one of their air tankers as well as the identities of the crew fighting the wildfires in North South Wales, Australia.
While working in the Snowy Monaro Area in North South Wales Australia, contact was lost with one our large airtankers, a Lockheed C-130 registration N134CG the media release states.
The Hercules C-130 aircraft, one of over 70 firefighting aircraft fighting the Australian blazes, departed Richmond, NSW with a load of retardant destined to an area the crew was working on in a difficult to access rugged region of New South Wales.
It took hours for crews to locate, report and confirm 3 fatalities in what was reported to be an extensive crash site.
Early Thursday evening, Coulson Aviation identified the three crew members as 44 year old Capt. Ian H. McBeth, of Great Falls, Montana. 42 year old First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, of Buckeye, Arizona, and 43 year old Flight Engineer Rick A. DeMorgan, Jr. of Navarre, Fla.
Authorities described conditions as very difficult, hot, dry and windy aggressive fire weather. There was no immediate indication of what caused the crash.
