The sharing of large firefighting aircraft across Australian states has been simplified with the introduction of national standard operating procedures. The new standards will replace individual state arrangements across a range of procedures including minimum drop heights, airspeed, flight paths, communications and training.
The change addresses safety issues found after a 2023 Boeing 737 accident in Western Australia.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) announced the new procedures this week following the publication of the standards by the National Aerial Firefighting Centre at the end June 2026.
On 6 February 2023, a Coulson Aviation Boeing 737 large air tanker hit a ridgeline on rising terrain after completing a retardant drop in the Fitzgerald River National Park in the state’s south-west.
The two pilots on board survived the accident without injuries and were quickly rescued by a nearby helicopter crew. The aircraft, however, was destroyed in the collision and subsequent fire.
The ATSB’s final report into the accident identified several safety factors which contributed to, or increased risk in, the accident.
Among these, the investigation highlighted how Australian states and territories had developed their own separate standard operating procedures for large air tankers engaged in firefighting operations.
The ATSB benchmarked the WA, New South Wales and National Aerial Firefighting Centre standards against the United States Forest Service and United States National Wildfire Coordinating Group standards and found inconsistencies between the Australian agencies’ standards but not among the United States agencies’ standards. It said that this was likely a result of each Australian state participating in the LAT program independently producing their own standards.
“The investigation found differing standards between jurisdictions could result in safety requirements being omitted or misunderstood by the various tasking agencies, such as a minimum drop height,” ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said.
“This resulted in inconsistencies in the development and application of large air tanker standard operating procedures (SOPs).”
These SOPs have now been collaboratively developed, endorsed and adopted by all Australian fire agencies, through the National Aerial Firefighting Centre.
“Large air tankers, which can quickly move around the country in response to operational need, play an increasingly critical role in the management and suppression of bushfires in Australia.
“As such, the implementation of national air tanker standard operating procedures represents a significant milestone in the ongoing maturity of the aerial firefighting safety system in Australia.
