Australia's devastating bushfire season has claimed the lives of three more people — the crew of a large aerial water bomber being leased from a North American. As an investigation into the crash begins, here's what we know.
In 2002, a C-130 had its wings fall off mid-flight as it was fighting northern Californian wildfires. It rolled, inverted and crashed into the forest below, killing all three crew.
"The aerial firefighting environment is terrifically hard on an aircraft with anywhere from 5.7 to 7 times the fatigue of airline flying," Mr Wardall said.Mr Collins believes there"are a handful of scenarios that could have happened" with the most likely being the aircraft could no longer handle the conditions.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Three dead as air tanker fighting bushfires crashes near Snowy MountainsBreaking: Three people have died when a C-130 water tanker plane crashed while battling a fire in southern NSW this afternoon
Read more »
Three dead as firefighting plane crashes in southern NSWThree American specialist firefighters have died when their Hercules C-130 crashed in southern NSW this afternoon.
Read more »
'Enormous tragedy': Three US firefighters die in plane crash while battling bushfiresThe NSW Premier has confirmed three crew members died when a Large Air Tanker crashed while fighting a bushfire west of Cooma.
Read more »
Large Air Tanker crashes while fighting bushfire in NSWSeveral helicopters search an area in southern NSW after the Rural Fire Service says it lost contact with a Large Air Tanker working in the Snowy Monaro area.
Read more »
NSW, ACT fires LIVE updates: RFS issue multiple emergency warnings amid extreme heatThe NSW Rural Fire Service have issued several emergency warnings for townships across the state, as NSW and Sydney swelter through extreme heat.
Read more »
NSW, ACT fires LIVE updates: RFS issue multiple emergency warnings amid extreme heatThe NSW RFS has confirmed it is investigating reports a large aircraft has crashed over the Snowy Monaro area this afternoon while assisting with the firefighting effort.
Read more »