737 Fire bomber crash in Western Australia

[Bob_Roller]

I saw a video on YouTube yesterday morning about a fire bomber crash .
In the story, the aircraft registration was given N619SW, that 737 was retired from the Southwest Airlines fleet in 2017 and then converted by a company in British Columbia, Canada to a fire bomber . I worked on that aircraft for over 20 years .
On a good note, the two man crew got out with minor injuries .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVd4KwoqXhg&t=58s


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pilots-walk-away-from-737-crash-in-australia/ar-AA17emVo?cvid=0828fbef55614cc39af252737d763ac0

[Tony Smith]

I am looking forward to the accident report. From the drag path the a/C had significant forward speed when it impacted the ground, borne out by the cockpit remaining sufficiently intact for the pilots to escape.

I suspect they got caught by windsheer near the fire resulting in them being on the wrong side of the "power available/power required" curve leading the a/C to impact near horizontal.

Coulson have had a run of accidents in Australia, acouple of years back they lost a C-130 and crew. They have also lost two 412s, thankfully without losing any crew.

Fire fighting is dangerous work.