Air Tanker Crashes on Way to Base

A 48-year-old air tanker being ferried from Arizona to San Bernardino for use in battling forest fires crashed in the fog-shrouded mountains of the San Bernardino National Forest on Friday morning, killing both men on board, officials said.

The crash of the twin-engine plane started a fire that charred about an acre of brush on a steep hillside near Seven Oaks Dam. The impact and fire reduced the aircraft to scattered bits of charred wreckage.

It was the third fatal crash of an aging firefighting plane in the last 16 months. Two earlier crashes occurred when fatigue cracks caused the wings to snap off. There was no indication that wing problems caused Friday’s crash.

It was not known whether the heavy overcast that blanketed the San Bernardino Mountains was a factor. A National Transportation Safety Board investigator was dispatched from Los Angeles to determine the cause of the accident.

The pilot and co-pilot of the PV2-7 patrol craft, built by Lockheed in 1955, were employees of Minden Air Corp. in Minden, Nev., which owned the plane, a company spokesman said. The identities of the two men were withheld pending notification of relatives.

The plane, which was being flown under contract with the U.S. Forest Service, went down at about the 3,500-foot level while being ferried from Prescott, Ariz., to a base for firefighting aircraft at San Bernardino International Airport, formerly Norton Air Force Base.

Two Forest Service observers in a mountain lookout tower said they saw the plane just before it crashed. The plane was being brought to Southern California for use during the waning fire season. The crash occurred in a forest that is on high alert for brush fires because of a drought and damage from the bark beetle, which has killed thousands of trees.

Gabriel Garcia, district ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, said his crew was completing work on a fire in nearby Lytle Creek when they heard about the crash.

He immediately worried that the members of the firefighting team were on board.

“I had worried that we had lost someone,” he said.

The two earlier crashes occurred as the planes were being flown through a series of strenuous maneuvers while battling fires.

On June 17, 2002, both wings snapped off a 45-year-old C-130 pulling out of a dive after dropping its load of fire retardant near Walker, Calif. The crash was captured on videotape aired on television throughout the world.

A month later, a 58-year-old PB4Y-2 was banking in a turn, preparing to make a water drop near Estes Park, Colo., when the left wing broke off.

Both planes were owned by Hawkins and Powers, a firm based in Greybull, Wyo.

Fatigue cracks were subsequently found in several other air tankers, raising questions about surplus military aircraft being used to fight fires.

In December 2002, the Forest Service permanently grounded 11 planes and temporarily grounded several others.

The grounded air tankers were all C-130 and PB4Y-2 models.

Officials said the other 33 air tankers being flown, including the PV2-7 that crashed Friday, were all inspected thoroughly and placed under a more intensive maintenance program before being returned to duty.

*

Times correspondent Steven K. Doi contributed to this report.