Warbird Information Exchange

Sadly 2 lives lost...
From:
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/print ... id=3647791

Two dead in plane crash

From correspondents in Lyon

August 21, 2005

A FIREFIGHTING aircraft crashed today as it was tackling a blaze in south-eastern France, killing the two crew members on board, French officials said.


The accident was the latest of several this year involving aircraft battling forest fires in France.
The Grumman Tracker aircraft went down "on the edge of the fire" in the Ardeche

region, where 15 hectares of forest were burning this morning, fire officials said.

The victims were a 43-year-old trainee pilot and his 45-year-old instructor.

Civil security spokesman Eric Soupra said it was not yet known which of the two men had been

at the plane's controls.

Ardeche regional official Patrick Duprat said two Trackers were fighting the flames, backing

up 150 firemen on the ground, along with two Canadair amphibian water bombers and the latest

addition to the fleet, a Canadian-built Dash-8.

On August 1, the pilot and co-pilot of a Canadair plane died when the aircraft crashed on

the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. On July 19, a Tracker crashed in the south-eastern

Var region but the pilot escaped unhurt.

On August 14 a Dutch pilot for a private company died when his small plane hired by local

authorities crashed into the sea just after dropping two loads of fire-retardant chemicals on a

fire at an unauthorised gypsy camp near Serignan.

The twin-engined Tracker, a Canadian-developed firefighting version of a US Navy

carrier-borne anti-submarine aircraft, has been in service with the French civil defence for

more than 20 years, according to the website of the squadron based at Marignane, near

Marseille.

Although re-engined, the basic airframes, either Canadian or US-built, are about 50 years

old, according to the site.

AFP

This report was published at www.dailytelegraph.com.au

That's terribly sad... those guys have had some bad luck in a veru short space of time.... 4 aircraft in a month!!!

I did see some remarkable (and horrific) pictures of the Canadair 415 crashing... the whole tail section separated from the aircraft. Yet another in-flight breakup. Seems to me that everyone needs to do a little more fatigue testing, or at least to adjust the fatigue life on these airframes for firefighting purposes.

Richard

The Hercules which have broken up have largely been A models for which
there are repair schemes. They are old airframes and unfortunately the economics of the job dictate older aircraft. The Canadair 415's are either modified piston machines or new build. I believe Canadair take their job
very seriously - very sad but it's a dangerous business.

I know the word about the 415 accident is that it was caused by flutter. A control not properly rigged will cause flutter and that in turn can take the tail off...

It's very sad to see the Tracker go down too...

_________________
Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB