Air tanker’s wing may have hit tree before Yosemite crash, NTSB says

The wing of an air tanker that crashed while being used to fight a wildfire near Yosemite National Park last week may have struck a tree before going down, according to a report by federal investigators.

The S-2T tanker was destroyed on impact Oct. 7 when it went down near El Portal fighting the Dog Rock fire, killing veteran pilot Geoffrey “Craig” Hunt.

The report, released by the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday, describes an account from a controller airplane crew, which said the tanker may have struck a tree, causing its wing to separate before the crash.

Earlier that day, Hunt had departed an air base in Hollister. When he arrived at the fire, he made a drop and then headed to Columbia Airport in Tuolumne County to fill up on fire retardant.

Hunt returned to the fire and coordinated his next drop with an orbiting aerial controller while following a lead plane, which defines a route and drop point ahead of the tanker.

The lead plane’s crew did not see the accident, but the controller’s crew, which coordinates aerial operations with the ground units, may have.

Even though there was smoke in the area, visibility was good, according to the report.

At the time, the Dog Rock fire was only 10% contained.

On Friday, NTSB investigators announced that they had not found any mechanical issues with the tanker, prompting state fire officials to lift an order that had grounded California’s fleet of S-2T air tankers.

The fleet is owned by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, but maintained by DynCorp International.

A resident of San Jose, Hunt, 62, had been fighting wildfires throughout the state for 13 years.

Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said in statement that the agency continues to mourn “the tragic loss of Craig.”

“Aerial firefighting is not simply flying from one airport to another. The wildland firefighting environment is a challenging one, both on the ground and in the air,” he said.

“We look forward to the final NTSB report to see if we can use the findings to help mitigate the inherent dangers of the job. We owe that to Craig, who traded his life in an effort to protect the lives of others.

A final report on the crash could take as long as 18 months.

The 311-acre Dog Rock fire was fully contained as of Sunday.

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