BC firefighter plane crashes in Western Australia, pilots suffer ‘minor injuries’

Two pilots have escaped unharmed after a Boeing 737 air tanker owned by a BC company crashed in Western Australia while on duty in a fire.

Coulson Aviation, an aerial firefighting company based out of Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, said in a statement it was grateful the pilots were safe.

“We are offering every possible support to our local and international crews. We are also grateful for the support from our colleagues in the fire and aviation industries in Western Australia.”

The plane crashed around 4:15 p.m. local time on Monday while responding to a bushfire in the Fitzgerald River National Park – some 475 kilometers south-east of Perth – according to a statement from Western Australia’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES).

The tanker is said to have departed from nearby Busselton-Margaret River Airport around 3:30 p.m

According to DFES, the two pilots extricated themselves from the plane and were picked up by helicopter and taken to a nearby airport and then taken to a medical facility.

Western Australia Police said in a statement the pilots suffered “minor injuries”.

Although it’s unclear what caused the crash, police say officers from the ATSB, Australia’s national road safety investigator, will be present at the crash site to conduct an investigation whenever possible.

ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell wrote in a statement to CBC the accident happened after the plane performed a second deceleration airdrop on the bushfire.

Mitchell said the crashed Boeing 737 used to operate as a passenger airline in the United States before being extensively modified for aerial firefighting by Coulson Aviation.

“At this time, there is nothing to indicate that this accident will have a broader impact on the global Boeing 737 aircraft fleet,” Mitchell wrote.

2nd crash in 3 years for the company

Mitchell said they are working to gather evidence, including interviewing pilots and witnesses, recovering the cockpit voice recorder and recovering flight data.

It is the second time in three years that a Coulson plane has crashed in Australia.

In 2020, a Coulson air tanker crashed while fighting a fire in south-east Australia, killing three American crew.

Coulson announced last month that it had won an order to provide the 737 Fireliner as Australia’s new large air tanker.

At the time, the company said the state-of-the-art aircraft was capable of dropping more than 15,000 liters of retarder, or water, at flow rates of up to 11,000 liters per second.

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