Aaron Harber, holding a muttonbird in the Nimboi-Binderay National Park. The Australian
The park ranger who was killed in a helicopter crash on Wednesday in New South Wales has been identified as Aaron Harber. The helicopter crashed in heavy fog as it was on its way to pick up other members of a rural firefighting team near Dorrigo in Australia. The pilot was seriously injured in the crash and is in critical condition with head and chest injuries.
From The Australian:
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Yesterday Harber’s friends paid tribute to a family man who worked tirelessly for the community.
“He was a big-hearted, down to earth, really nice guy who was generous with his time. The whole town is in a state of shock,” family friend Ross Pollard said.
With the National Parks and Wildlife Service since 1997, Harber moved up to Dorrigo 13 years ago with his family from Sutherland Shire in southern Sydney where he grew up.
His wife Jane Louise Geyle Harber said in a statement released yesterday afternoon, “It is with great sadness that we mourn the tragic loss of Aaron, proud husband, father and family member in a tragic helicopter crash yesterday at Dorrigo.
“While we are devastated by our loss, we take pride in the knowledge that Aaron has left a lasting legacy as a fine family man and as an active member of the Dorrigo community.
“His sacrifice will not be forgotten and he will be forever missed.”
“His family will be cared for,” Barnes said.
“We’re working with the family and we’re helping out in every way possible. We will be supporting them through this.”
“The family will be entitled to a lump sum payment from the National Parks and is also entitled to weekly payments to dependent children,” a National Parks spokesperson said.
Nearly 100 bushfires are still raging in NSW with 29 fires rated “uncontainable”.
Fires in Bundarra, Barraba and near Gwydir remain out of control, burning in and around rural properties.
“We have got a lot of fire activity from north of Tamworth to Armidale and that’s mostly a result of some dry lightning that has went through the area over the last few days,” RFS spokesman Ben Shepard said.
A statement released by NSW Health confirmed that 61 year old Bernie Schulte is in a critical but stable condition and 20 year old Cameron is in stable condition after suffering burns while defending their property in the town of Vittoria, 25km west of Bathurst.
Numerous media outlets are reporting that a New South Wales (NSW) Parks and Wildlife ranger who was a passenger on a helicopter died when the ship crashed on Wednesday on the NSW mid-north coast. The pilot initially walked away from the accident but is in critical condition in a hospital with injuries to the head, chest, and back.
The Bell Jet Ranger helicopter was contracted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Rural Fire Service out of Glenn Innes to map a number of bushfires started by lightning overnight. It was returning to base when it crashed in a rain forest. Investigators are evaluating whether fog in the area contributed to the crash.
The pilot has over 3,000 hours of flying time.
In a second incident, two Rural Fire Service helicopters were involved in a mid-air collision when the water bucket of the higher ship contacted the rotor blades of the lower helicopter while working on a bushfire in the NSW central west on Tuesday. The four pilots were not injured and both ships landed safely, one with damage. The accident occurred in dense smoke.
The third incident occurred when the pilot of a helicopter working on a fire about 40km southeast of Tamworth was forced to make an emergency landing due to engine trouble. Again, no injuries were reported, but in the “heavy landing” the aircraft was extensively damaged.
Our sincere condolences go out to the families.
In a non-aircraft incident in Australia, two property owners were seriously burned while defending their home from a bushfire in the central-west town of Vittoria, near Bathurst on Tuesday afternoon. The 61-year old farmer is in critical condition after suffering burns over 81 percent of his body. His 20-year-old son was also injured but is in stable condition.
The Department of Interior’s Aviation Management Divison has released a report on the crash of the Single Engine Air Tanker in which the pilot, Dave Jamsa, was killed. The accident occurred on August 20 on the Hoyt Fire 125 miles northeast of Reno, Nevada. Wildfire Today reported on it HERE.
The report, which is in addition to and separate from any report by the NTSB, concluded that the air tanker while attempting to drop retardant on the fire did not release any retardant and impacted the ground. Investigators found that the drop mechanism had not been armed, meaning it would have been impossible to release the load.
Thanks Dick
UPDATE September 6, 2018: Here is an excerpt from the NTSB summary of the accident investigation:
On November 1, 1966, the El Cariso Hotshots were trapped by flames as they worked on a steep hillside in Pacoima Canyon on the Angeles National Forest.
Ten members of the crew perished on the Loop Fire that day. Another two members succumbed from burn injuries in the following days. Most of the nineteen members who survived were critically burned and remained hospitalized for some time.
Lessons learned from the Loop Fire resulted in the checklist for downhill line construction, improved firefighting equipment, better fire behavior training, and the implementation of new firefighter safety protocols.
After reviewing the “Accident Investigation: Factual Report” of the tree falling accident on the Dutch Creek Fire in which Andrew Palmer was killed, Wildfire Today compiled these findings, causal factors, and contributing factors from the document.
Findings
EM-CAPT was given a line assignment without adequate supervision for the assigned task. FC2 failed to exercise proper supervisory control by allowing EM-CAPT to cut trees above EM-CAPT’s level of certification.
Excessive motivation for EM to obtain a line assignment led to a series of inadequate communications and assumptions which subsequently led to a mismatch between resource request and resource assignment.
A class C tree was felled by an unqualified sawyer. Escape routes/safety zones were not effectively utilized by FC1.
There was insufficient pre-planning to integrate incident personnel and resources into the local emergency management system, taking into account local factors, including environmental conditions, to effectively manage a serious injury and the subsequent medical evacuation.
Inadequate leadership, communication, and risk management resulted in a lack of clarity in communicating the severity of the injury, resource availability, and a failure to evaluate the most appropriate method of evacuation relative to risk exposure, resources required, and timeliness.
The incident was operating with inaccurate or incomplete IAPs.
The National Park Service fleet management procedures for quality control are inadequate to ensure mission ready condition of new wildland fire engines and to appropriately handle maintenance and repair issues.
Iron Complex Ground Support failed to take appropriate measures to red tag EM’s engine.
Tree falling findings
Tree 1 was a class C tree. The stump measured 36.7” in diameter at the point the cut was made.
The highest saw qualification of any of the crew members present was that of a faller B.
The undercut of Tree 1 was not cleaned sufficiently as to provide an adequate “hinge” to direct Tree 1 during the felling process.
The undercut of Tree 1 exhibits two distinct horizontal (gunning) cuts and two sloping cuts. Multiple Dutchmen that would have altered the holding wood were also present.
Tree 1 fell away from its intended lay due to lean, possible limb weight, and an inadequately cleaned undercut.
Tree 1 appeared to have been a sound, green tree with no readily apparent defects that would have required it to be felled as a hazard tree.
Medical Treatment
Causal Factor
Failure to adequately control FC1’s arterial bleeding of the left femur injury received during a tree falling accident resulted in death due to excessive blood loss.
Contributing factors
There was inadequate accident scene command and control which led to a failure to communicate the extent and severity of the injuries and to evaluate the most appropriate evacuation method.
There was a delay in delivering FC1 to definitive medical care because personnel involved in the incident focused on the use of air resources, most of which were unavailable due to the smoky conditions.
The National Park Service has released the report about the accident in which an NPS firefighter, Andrew Palmer, died. Mr. Palmer was killed during a tree falling incident on the Eagle fire, part of the Iron Complex on the Shasta Trinity National Forest in northern California on July 25, 2008. He was a firefighter at Olympic National Park in Port Angeles, Washington.
Below is the complete executive summary from the factual report:
Early in the day on July 22, 2008, an engine from Olympic National Park received a resource order to report to the Iron Complex, on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, near Junction City, California. The crew and line supervision at the park were so motivated to see the engine crew obtain an immediate assignment that the NPFMO accepted the resource order despite not being able to contact all crew members who were on their day off. NPFMO tried all day to contact the crew and eventually assembled and dispatched the crew at 2100. Despite a late start and a series of complications enroute to the fire, which included mechanical problems with their engine that lead to the separation of their crew and engine captain, the remaining crew members were encouraged to continue to pursue a line assignment as a falling team. Because Incident Management personnel were equally motivated to find a line assignment for the eager crew, the crew was ultimately given an assignment as a falling module that they were not qualified for and without qualified first or second line supervision. During that assignment the crew cut a tree that was outside their falling qualifications, which resulted in the injury of FC1.
Upon arrival to the Incident Command Post on July 23, EM reported mechanical problems with the engine that required CAPT to drive the vehicle into Redding, California for warranty service. EM-CAPT stayed at ICP and on July 24, were given a logistical assignment in camp. On July 25, while CAPT was attempting to obtain a replacement engine from Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, EM-CAPT were given an assignment as a falling module to Division B on the Eagle Fire. The assignment was to mitigate hazard trees along the fire line, so crews could safely work in the area. At approximately 1350, FC2 called ICP for medical assistance for severely injured FC1. Emergency medical personnel responded and treated the injured FC1 for severe bleeding. Due to heavy smoke conditions requiring Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) capability, primary helicopter resources were unable to respond to FC1’s location. Firefighters carried FC1, by litter, to a location where FC1 was hoisted into a United States Coast Guard Helicopter, at approximately 1630. The USCG helicopter carrying FC1 arrived at Redding Municipal Airport, where FLN, in consultation with a Mercy Hospital Emergency Room Physician, pronounced FC1’s death at 1710. The Coroner later determined the cause of death to be blood loss due to blunt force trauma to FC1’s left leg.
The report includes this statement on the page before the executive summary:
SAIT Disclaimer
Based on all evidence available to the SAIT, we know that FC1 was injured from being struck by a tree during a felling operation. From the time of the accident, until the preparing of this report, no individual member of EM-CAPT could be positively identified, nor excluded from being the sawyer at the time of the accident.
Evidence collected by the SAIT included 54 manual and electronic time-stamped documents. These documents were collected from multiple entities, in three different counties. Comparing documents that logged the same event, the SAIT noted time stamps often varied by 5 to 10 minutes.
“SAIT” is the Serious Accident Investigation Team.
Page 87 of the report includes this information:
Technical Assessment of Accident Site
Due to the lack of eye-witness accounts, a number of key facts are unclear; therefore actual events have been pieced together from interview statements and evidence at scene. FC2 and FC3 are the only surviving witnesses to the accident and they have not granted interviews to the Serious Accident Investigation Team. While it is impossible to determine at this time who actually fell Tree 1, it is possible for experienced observers to read the stump, the lay of the felled tree, and the felling area to determine how the felling of Tree 1 set into motion the sequence of events that lead to FC1 being injured.
On page 5 of the report is a description of the accident:
A decision was made to fall a large ponderosa pine (36.7” at the point of the cut). Downslope from the ponderosa pine was a 54” DBH sugar pine that had an uphill lean and a large cat face on the uphill side. When cut, the ponderosa pine fell downslope toward the sugar pine. It was contact with the sugar pine, or vibration from the ponderosa hitting the ground, that caused a portion of the sugar pine, approximately 120 feet long, to break off and fall upslope, hitting FC1 resulting in severe injuries.
The report includes the information that on August 6, 2008 the Serious Accident Investigation Team (SAIT) gave the case file to a National Park Service Special Agent. On August 7 the SAIT was “disengaged” from the “safety investigation” until further notice.
On January 26, 2009 the Federal Prosecutor issued a “Declination of Criminal Charges related to the death of FC1”. In early March the safety investigation resumed. The SAIT completed their report on May 18, 2009.
