Smokejumper aircraft incident in Ravalli County

On April 22, a Short Sherpa Smokejumper aircraft – Jumper 63 or – landed at Hamilton Airport south of Missoula N163Z suffered “significant” damage while landing after a training flight from MSO to Ravalli County.

But not according to the US Forest Service.

Well, they actually admitted that the incident happened, but they definitely don’t want to talk about it, other than to say, “We can’t talk about it.” If there is any incident involving F&AM aircraft that requires an NTSB investigation triggers, then the USFS cannot speak to us (the public and firefighters as well as fire department readers and media enemies) because the ONLY people who can speak about this incident are the NTSB. And they are not readily available.

The Forest Service definitely can’t tell reporters and editors what’s going on with a plane accident when the NTSB takes control. They cannot discuss the timeline, the personnel involved, the causes or results of the incident, or anything related to the incident. We didn’t ask for any of it.

However, you also cannot confirm whether the aircraft registration was current if you point out that some online records indicate that the registration expired as early as September, and they do not say who is responsible for updating the registration or the corresponding responsible for records.

We are not talking about a fire accident with multiple fatalities. The smokejumper plane left the runway for some reason (depending on who you talk to, the brakes could have locked or frozen and the plane could have “lost control” (although it’s probably a pilot losing control). , not).The plane then left the runway. People who were involved in the incident or knew about it, but would rather not reveal their names publicly, say that a Sherpa’s brakes did not occur when landing without the pilot’s involvement. freeze,” the aircraft did not lose control, and “deviation” from the runway would likely not cause “significant” damage – which is the case in some non-NTSB reports.

This was a training flight with a Sherpa jump ship in late April; The aircraft left MSO at midday and was flying around on a training flight with a pilot and two passengers. When landing in Hamilton (KHRF) there was some kind of “incident”.

There are more than a few Short Sherpas registered with the USFS for smokejumping and other purposes.

According to the US agency, significant damage was caused in an incident in which “BRAKES LOCKED AND LOSSED CONTROL AND WENT OFF THE RUNWAY IN HAMILTON.” The next day, the Helena FSDO was in charge. The FSDO (the FAA’s Flight Standards District Office) includes three groups – Operations and Airworthiness and Avionics – each of which has inspectors who conduct investigations. We’re betting that the first reporting information will come from someone other than the US Forest Service employees, NINE of whom have refused to even acknowledge this aircraft incident.

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