Eyes Meet in ‘Death Dive’s’ Last Moments

Jim Wattenburger, a battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry, has seen a lot of fires. He has been in peril many times. But nothing in his experience could prepare him for what he saw Monday in the hills of Mendocino County.

As two firefighting planes arched around a mountain, a third plane flew directly at them. As Wattenburger watched in horror from a nearby ridge, one of the Grumman S-2 tankers crashed into another.

“One of the planes was coming right at us,” Wattenburger said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “His tail had been sliced off by the other plane. He nosed over and went into a death dive, headed right at me. As he was going into the dive he made eye contact with me and I made eye contact with him.

“He was mouthing words and I was praying for him.

“We ran for our lives. The plane impacted less than 100 feet from us and exploded in a 300-foot ball of flaming aviation fuel.

“I’ve been in burning buildings; I’ve been trapped in fires, but I’ve never been scared like this. Never.”

Both pilots in the collision died.

State officials said it was the first time that two planes have collided while fighting a fire for the Department of Forestry.

Prosecutors held a man on two counts of murder for allegedly starting the fire while operating an illegal methamphetamine lab.

The suspect, Frank Brady, 50, was arrested Monday afternoon not far from the fire in the oak-covered brushland between Hopland and Ukiah, about 90 miles north of San Francisco. He was to be arraigned in Superior Court today. In addition to the murder counts, he faces drug and arson charges, Mendocino Dist. Atty. Norman Vroman said.

Pilots Larry Groff, 55, of Windsor and Lars Stratte, 45, of Redding died in the crash as they were trying to dump fire retardant on the blaze from their Korean War-vintage planes. The two men were employees of San Joaquin Helicopters in Delano, which was fighting the fire under contract to the Department of Forestry.

The company issued a statement describing them as “highly trained, professional pilots,” each of whom had “many years of experience in aerial firefighting.’

The single-seat Grumman S-2 tankers had been used as submarine chasers during the Korean War, and have since been retrofitted to carry up to 800 gallons of fire retardant.

The 250-acre fire was contained at 6 p.m. Tuesday, the Department of Forestry said.

The blaze had broken out about 3 p.m. Monday near what Vroman said was a methamphetamine lab. Fire officials described the fire as an out-of-control campfire.

Typical late-summer conditions--hot, dry weather, a brisk west wind and tinder-dry brush--had led authorities to declare a “no burn” day, making the simple lighting of a campfire illegal, Mendocino County Undersheriff Gary Hudson said.

The blaze destroyed two homes and 10 outbuildings, he said.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s office said a Forestry Department officer en route to the fire arrested Brady shortly after 4 p.m. Monday when he stopped a black SUV that had been reported to be leaving the scene of the fire.

Brady, of nearby Redwood Valley, was held on the two counts of murder, one count of attempt to manufacture methamphetamine and one count of arson, Vroman said.

While it is not common for people to be charged with murder for setting brush fires, it is far from unprecedented. In Mendocino County alone, authorities said they could recall at least two previous cases, and Vroman said the legal theory behind the charge is commonplace.

“The commission of an unlawful act, inherently dangerous in and of itself, that results in the death of another human being--that is the legal test for it,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Hopland, not far from the fire.

Another man, Richard Mortensen, 43, of San Pablo, was arrested later Monday at Brady’s home on outstanding drug warrants, but authorities stressed that he was not considered a suspect in the fire.

“He may ultimately be involved in this case . . . but I don’t know at this point,” Vroman said.

Fourteen pilots have been killed since 1976 fighting fires for the state Forestry Department, spokeswoman Karen Terrill said, but this was the first instance of two planes colliding.

In all, nine aircraft were deployed to fight the fire Monday, Terrill said.

“Many of these pilots are ex-military,” she said. “I have had several tell me this type of flying is more dangerous than combat. They are flying in smoky conditions. They are flying in turbulent conditions. They have to watch out for trees, canyon walls, power lines. . . . Yesterday, California lost two of their best.”

Times staff writer Mitchell Landsberg contributed to this story.