I know most of these pilots personally, and in Italy Canadair firefighthing is led by a mix of military and civilian pilots. All my condoleances to the crew. All captains are highly experienced and fully capable and take great risks operating so close to the ground.
They often do several missions a day and it can and does happen that they have few options should anything go wrong.
I do not wish to judge or come to any conclusions, and there will be an inquiry for this.
There has been extensive video footage from different vantage points which in hindsight may allow to make a few considerations.
As a mountain rated pilot, there are a few things that strike me, but again I do not have the full picture of the orography the crew had in this accident, i.e. the view from the cockpit nor was I exposed to the startle factor occuring in such situations.:
The very high bank angle during the final turn and positionning, well in excess of 60 AOB, close 80 AOB. Increasing apparent weight, and decrease of IAS on an aircraft already heavy laden with fuel and water.
Then the scoop and water release during the turn on the opposite side of the fire;
The crew at this point most likely realised the degraded situation and had to get rid of the excessive weight.
But they were banking and went into a dynamic stall ,with the very much increased dynamic stall stall speed; Unrecoverable. There seems to be a ridge ahead which may have prevented the levelling off and escape maneuver, difficult to judge.
The captain was an highly experienced previous fighter pilot. But many years ago he had a crash in a Siai 208 in which his crew member died.
The inquiry concluded in reckless flying and he was charged; The air force owner of the aircraft sued him for financial compensation.
Charges were subsequently dropped and he was reinstated.
Last edited by markkal; 30th Oct 2022 at 12:37.