The FAA reported that the helicopter that went into Lake Shastiana July 7 was a Bell 212, N911KW registered to Rogers Helicopters.
Their very brief preliminary report says, “Aircraft submerged during water operations from Lake Shastina, Weed, CA.”
The report said there were no injuries.
A Bell 212, N911KW registered to Rogers Helicopters, at the Detwiler Fire near Mariposa, California, July 27, 2017. CAL FIRE photo.
Updated at 6:58 p.m. PDT July 7, 2021
Lava Fire, 6:02 p.m. PDT July 7, 2021.
This article first appeared on Fire Aviation.
The Incident Management Team on the Lava Fire in Northern California announced Wednesday afternoon, July 7, that a helicopter working on the fire performed an emergency landing into Lake Shastina in the afternoon due to unknown reasons. The pilot was able to swim/walk away and was being assessed. There were no other passengers on board.
The 25,000-acre Lava Fire is three miles east of Weed, California on the northern slopes of Mt. Shasta. It has been burning since June 24, 2021.
The pilot of a helicopter that crashed while fighting a fire in Alberta, Canada was killed when the Bell 212 went down Monday evening. It occurred on a fire near the community of Evansburg. The body of the pilot, the only person on board, was recovered Monday.
The pilot’s family has been notified.
From CBC news:
Emergency crews were called to the scene around 6:30 p.m. after RCMP received a 911 call reporting the crash. Evansburg RCMP, EMS, firefighters and Alberta Wildfire responded to the site in a remote area west of Highway 22 and north of Highway 16 in Yellowhead County.
The location is not accessible by road and police were brought to the scene by aircraft.
Logan said the terrain of the remote crash site was “difficult” but witness accounts helped first responders narrow their search for the wreckage.
“It wasn’t an exhaustive search because many eyewitnesses saw the helicopter go down,” Fraser said.
RCMP are cooperating with Transportation Safety Board (TSB) investigators who are taking charge of the investigation, Logan said.
Our sincere condolences go out to the pilot’s family, friends, and co-workers.
Map of the Robertson Draw Fire. The red line was the perimeter Thursday morning June 17, 2021. The white line was the perimeter about 24 hours before.
Robertson Draw Fire
The fire spread to the north and south Wednesday, but not as much as in previous days. It was mapped overnight at 24,271 acres, a 24-hour increase of about 4,000 acres.
From the Incident Management Team Thursday morning:
“[Wednesday], moderated weather conditions allowed fire crews to work on the northeastern, eastern, and southeastern sides of the fire. Crews and equipment worked to tie in dozer lines to burned areas that had cooled down in the rangeland grass areas. Air tanker water and retardant drops were conducted along the northwest side of Mt. Maurice to check fire spread. Aircraft were also used on the south side to check fire spread. The fire remained active along portions of the northern edge and in the timbered areas south of Mt. Maurice. Additional firefighting crews and equipment arrived and Operations personnel from the incoming [Type 2 Incident Management] team worked closely with the local firefighters to increase their situational awareness and start developing firefighting plans for the next several days.
“Evacuation Orders are in effect for the areas of North and South Grove Creek, Gold Creek, Ruby Creek, and Robertson Draw east to Highway 72. Evacuations as a part of the Forest Closure Order include the USDA Forest Service Recreation Residences in Corral Creek, Spring Creek, Snow Creek, and Sheep Creek.”
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Robertson Draw Fire, including the most current, click HERE.
Resources working on the fire Wednesday night included 4 hand crews, 17 engines, and 5 helicopters for a total of 162 personnel. At least 18 structures have been destroyed.
We have a series of photos of the fire taken over a three-day period from the same location. Check them out.
Deep Creek Fire
Map of the Deep Creek Fire. The red line was the perimeter Thursday morning June 17, 2021.
The Northern Rockies Type 1 Incident Management Team #1 assumed command of the fire at 6 a.m. Thursday.
The IMT reported Thursday at noon on InciWeb that the fire had burned 3,668 acres, but it is likely that the actual size is about 1,000 acres larger.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Deep Creek Fire, including the most current, click HERE.
The diminished fire intensity Wednesday allowed crews to reengage with a dozer, skidgens, and a hand crew on the southwest section of the fire. The plan for Thursday is to continue direct fire line construction on the southwest corner of the fire moving along the fire’s perimeter to the north while continuing to identify and work on spot fires to the north from Tuesday’s wind event.
The Grassy Mountain subdivision is still under an evacuation order.
Resources working on the fire Wednesday night included 1 hand crew, 6 engines, and 4 helicopters for a total of 94 personnel. There is no report of any structures that have been destroyed.
Fire Aviation reported that a helicopter working on the Deep Creek Fire crashed and burned June 15. There were five on board and all reportedly exited the aircraft before it ignited. They were assisted by a trooper from the Highway Patrol, Amanda Villa who was very close by when the crash, first described by the Montana DNRC as a “hard landing”, occurred. There were injuries, but no details have been released.
This Tweet was published the morning of June 17, 2021.
Preliminary information is now available from the FAA about yesterday’s fatal helicopter crash in Central Florida:
Aircraft conducting fire water drop exercises, lost control of the bucket causing the rotor section to separate, crashed in a wooded area, and caught on fire. Leesburg, FL.
The FAA reports there were four fatalities, one flight crew member and three passengers.
Local media is reporting city officials said the bodies all four crew members were recovered from the crash site and are in the custody of the medical examiner’s office. Their names have not been released.
The aircraft, N9FH, was a Sikorsky UH-60A, a Blackhawk registered to Brainerd Helicopters Inc. out of Leesburg, Florida. The police department described the owner as Brainerd Helicopters Inc./Firehawk Helicopters, located at Leesburg International Airport.
Brainerd has firefighting contracts with the Federal government and other organizations.
We extend our sincere condolences to the families, friends, and coworkers of the four individuals.
In 2017 I took photos of some of Brainerd’s Firehawks at their facility in Boise.
10:57 a.m. EDT May 26, 2021
A Blackhawk helicopter crashed Tuesday afternoon near Leesburg International Airport in Central Florida. The incident was reported at 5:47 p.m. One fatality has been confirmed and the other three on board have not been found. A black column of smoke was seen at the crash site.
No survivors have been located. ONE confirmed death at this time. Most of the fire is under control now. US forestry is on scene plowing a line around the scene to prevent any vegetation fires. FAA has been notified of the crash and will start their investigation tomorrow.
The Miami Herald reported that the helicopter was on a firefighting training exercise.
Based on preliminary information, it appears that the helicopter went into a spin, and at some point its tail separated, Leesburg Police Capt. Joe Iozzi told WKMG, a TV station in the Orlando area.
“The tail actually went onto the airport runway area while the main body of the helicopter went into the wooded swampy area which is making it difficult for rescue crews to get back to,” Iozzi told the news station.
As this was written at 10:57 a.m. EDT May 26, the names of the personnel on board or the agency operating the helicopter have not been released.
Four were killed Monday May 10 after a helicopter crashed in Erhai Lake in Dali, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province. The Z-8X helicopter operated by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force had been assisting firefighters on the ground by dropping water with an external bucket. It crashed while attempting to refill at the lake.
Initially it was reported that the two pilots were killed and there were two missing crewmembers. After a search that involved 16 ships and more than 490 rescuers the crewmembers were found deceased about 16 hours later, very early Tuesday morning local time.
Videos show the aircraft start to slowly rotate or spin while it was a couple of hundred feet above the lake before the bucket was lowered into the water. The spin increased in speed and the helicopter descended, then there was an explosion that sent debris flying before the helicopter hit the water.
The video below has a different angle and includes footage after the crash.
Our sincere condolences go out to the crew’s family, friends, and coworkers.
The Z-8 helicopter is a Chinese version of the French Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelon helicopter.
The China Daily, owned by the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party, reported that a huge number of people were assigned to the 118-acre wildfire the helicopter was working on:
“A total of 2,532 people were mobilized to extinguish the fire which scorched some 48 hectares of land, according to the forest and grassland fire prevention and control headquarters in Dali. No casualties as a result of the fire have been reported.”
A typical fire that size would have a perimeter of about 9,400 feet. If the 2,532 personnel on the fire were all standing on the perimeter they would be stationed every 3 feet, literally shoulder to shoulder.
The accident occurred July 7, 2020 on the Polles Fire west of Payson, Arizona
Bryan Jeffery “BJ” Boatman
On July 7, 2020 a UH-1H helicopter crashed while transporting supplies to firefighters who were spiked out (camping) while working on the Polles Fire about 10 miles west of Payson, Arizona. The only person on board, pilot Bryan Jeffery “BJ” Boatman, 37, of Litchfield Park, Arizona was killed. We send our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Boatman, and to the forestry technicians who were at the fire.
The brief preliminary report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) did not mention any obvious causes for the crash, which happened while transporting firefighters’ equipment in an external sling load. Multiple personnel on the ground observed the helicopter flying erratically until finally “it entered a steep nose up attitude and then descended rapidly,” according to the report. Fire personnel saw no signs of fire before the crash and all major structural components of the helicopter were accounted for at the accident site.
Polles Fire vicinity map
BJ was born on June 8, 1983 in Provo, Utah. He was a third-generation pilot and worked alongside his parents to build their company, Airwest Helicopters of Glendale, Arizona.
3-D map of the Polles Fire from data at 10:36 p.m. July 7, 2020; looking north.
The helicopter, N623PB, serial number 64-13689, was manufactured in 1964. It is a UH-1H registered to Aero Leasing in Glendale, Arizona, the same city where Air West Helicopters is located.
Airwest Helicopters photo, N623PB.
In addition to the preliminary report released by the NTSB, a 23-page facilitated learning analysis (FLA) was commissioned by the U.S. Forest Service.
The FLA is solely devoted to analyzing the response to the accident — the Incident Within an Incident and the actions taken in the following days. It does not address what caused the helicopter to crash. The report found very little to criticize and praised most of the actions that were taken. It goes into quite a bit of detail about how the fire’s Incident Management Team handled the emergency response during the first few hours, as well as organizing over the next several days to care for BJ’s family and the forestry technicians that were witnesses to the crash or were otherwise affected.
Anyone who could in the future find themselves in a similar unfortunate situation would benefit from reading this FLA. Firefighting is dangerous, in the air and on the ground, and others will have to walk this same path.
During a 49-day period that began July 7, 2020 there were six crashes of firefighting aircraft — three helicopters and three air tankers. In addition, three members of the crew of a C-130 from the U.S. died when their air tanker crashed January 23, 2020 while fighting a bushfire in New South Wales, Australia.
Below is the text from the narrative portion of the three-page NTSB report. The complete report which will analyze the cause, might be released within the next year.
“On July 7, 2020, about 1213 mountain standard time, a Bell/Garlick UH-1H helicopter, N623PB, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Payson, Arizona. The pilot was fatally injured. The helicopter was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 133 external load flight.
Figure 1: Depiction of helicopter flight path based on witness statements. From the NTSB preliminary report.
“The helicopter was owned by Airwest Helicopters LLC and operated by the United States Forest Service at the time of the accident. According to witnesses, the helicopter was transporting supplies using a long line for a hotshot firefighting crew that were repositioning on the ground. The pilot transported three loads to the new destination uneventfully prior to the accident and had been using an indirect route to the north to avoid a fire area (Figure 1). While transporting the fourth load, witnesses observed the helicopter begin to fly erratically while en route to its destination. During this time, a witness stated that he observed the helicopter enter a high nose-up pitch attitude and the external payload began to swing. The helicopter then displayed irregular movements for several seconds before the external payload settled and the helicopter appeared to stabilize. However, after about 3 seconds, multiple witnesses observed The witnesses did not observe the helicopter on fire during the accident flight, nor did the pilot report any anomalies over the helicopter crew’s common air-to-ground radio frequency or any other assigned frequencies for the fire.
“The helicopter wreckage came to rest about 0.5 nm north of its drop off destination, oriented on a heading of 074° magnetic and was mostly consumed by postcrash fire. All major structural components of the helicopter were accounted for at the accident site. The helicopter’s external payload was found 123 ft southeast of the main wreckage.
“The wreckage was retained for further examination.”
Smoke from the Polles Fire, posted July 6, 2020. InciWeb.
