Air Tractor Fire Tanker Down Colorado - Kruger Rock Fire

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FlyingElvii

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flyingElvii
Pilot stated in the story that he was excited to "make history". Pretty sure this statement will be further evaluated by NTSB.
 
Mountainous terrain. That's a pretty rugged ridge and some deep valleys, gusty winds, night vision technology, relatively high density altitudes. (it was warm yesterday). Sounds pretty dangerous to me. So sad.
 
Oldmanb777 said:
Sounds pretty dangerous to me. So sad.
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The helicopter guys that have flown night fire ops said it is a handful and you can get into sensory overload in a heartbeat.
 
The great thing about NVGs is that they’re excellent in identifying small fires that would never be found with the naked eye. They also allow visual contact with the surface in dark, remote areas and can see thru thin smoke. The bad thing about NVGs is that large fires can render the NVGs useless because of the excess glare and thick smoke could quickly induce IIMC.
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Velocity173 said:
The great thing about NVGs is that they’re excellent in identifying small fires that would never be found with the naked eye. They also allow visual contact with the surface in dark, remote areas and can see thru thin smoke. The bad thing about NVGs is that large fires can render the NVGs useless because of the excess glare and thick smoke could quickly induce IIMC.
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It has been talked about in the past and it has always been a bad idea.
 
Facebook posting from a CO wildfire information page:

"The Co Fire Aviation family is deeply saddened by the sudden, tragic loss of one of our brothers serving as a tanker pilot. Marc Thor Olson was a highly decorated veteran of both the Army and Air Force with 32 years of service to our country. During Thor’s 42 years of flight, he had amassed more than 8,000 total flight hours with an impressive 1,000 hours of NVG flight including in combat and civilian flight.
Co Fire maintains a close working relationship with multi regulatory agencies and is fully cooperating with the proper authorities and partners during this investigation.
While we are gravely aware of the inherent dangers of aerial fire fighting and the questions that remain; we ask that family and friends be given distance and time to process and heal as we grieve this loss. Your prayers are appreciated during this difficult time."
 
Local news said he was a former A-10 pilot. So lots of close support experience. Tragic.
 
Pretty good PBS special dedicated to Thor.

 
Tarheelpilot said:
It has been talked about in the past and it has always been a bad idea.
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Yes, there's a sad history with military helicopter pilots and those "things" (which, I admit, are fun to play with at night, but I wouldn't drive my car across a parking lot wearing them.)
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Yes, there's a sad history with military helicopter pilots and those "things" (which, I admit, are fun to play with at night, but I wouldn't drive my car across a parking lot wearing them.)
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I don’t know about a sad history. There’s no way you could prosecute a war at night today without night vision technology. Lessons learned from Vietnam proved that. Even in EMS, it was determined they had an unusually high accident at night. Once programs started using NVGs about 10-15 years ago, their night accidents started declining. I’ve got around 1,500 hrs of NVGs and I’d be dead long ago if it weren’t for them.
 
Velocity173 said:
I don’t know about a sad history. There’s no way you could prosecute a war at night today without night vision technology. Lessons learned from Vietnam proved that. Even in EMS, it was determined they had an unusually high accident at night. Once programs started using NVGs about 10-15 years ago, their night accidents started declining. I’ve got around 1,500 hrs of NVGs and I’d be dead long ago if it weren’t for them.
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I’m not saying they are bad. I’m saying they are a tool, just the wrong tool for ops in a fire.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
I’m not saying they are bad. I’m saying they are a tool, just the wrong tool for ops in a fire.
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Yeah in the PBS vid they were talking about flying at 50-60 ft for the drop. That’s an unforgiving environment to be in day or night. Military rotor ops deal with the same kinds of conditions and as such they have a higher accident rate at night vs day. Difference is, they accept the risk because there’s no way you could do things at night such as NOE, mountain ops and dust landings. NVGs are a game changer but they do have their limits. Perhaps in firefighting they need to rethink their risk vs reward in fighting fires at night.
 
Velocity173 said:
Yeah in the PBS vid they were talking about flying at 50-60 ft for the drop. That’s an unforgiving environment to be in day or night. Military rotor ops deal with the same kinds of conditions and as such they have a higher accident rate at night vs day. Difference is, they accept the risk because there’s no way you could do things at night such as NOE, mountain ops and dust landings. NVGs are a game changer but they do have their limits. Perhaps in firefighting they need to rethink their risk vs reward in fighting fires at night.
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Honestly if they really want to go down this path I think it will require multiple sensors mounted on the airframe that feed into a system that renders a composite image from all the sensor data. FLIR, NVG etc. having used NVG for night ag ops I can’t imagine what it was like trying to be that low in a fire on goggles. As I said. They are amazing technology but when used in the wrong environment and circumstances it’s not a good situation. Just my opinion. Worth what it cost you.
 
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Had to check the pilot name. I have one neighbor and one long time friend who fly these things (I call them Dusty Crophoppers).
 
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