Originally Posted by J.O.
Those fires were not very far apart and the conditions were virtually identical.
In fact, they were 58 km apart, according to the ATSB. Were the conditions "identical" ? I don't know, but I have had the experience of being barely able to control an aircraft in mechanical turbulence in mountainous terrain , while conditions were dead calm and smooth less than 10 km away. Perhaps the C-130 crew felt that 58 km was distant enough that there was a possibility that the conditions would be different from the fire they were originally tasked for (and that the 737 tanker had declined to return to), enough of a possibility to warrant having a look. But for certain, they were not tasked to drop retardant on the same fire the other aircrews had turned down, after they had refused (further) operations, whcih was the earlier suggestion.