I won’t be surprised if fatigue features in the accident analysis, its insidious nature can cause competent pilots to make very poor decisions and if you are single pilot you have no one to recognise your fatigue level.
Yes, quite possibly. Northern Alberta has been experiencing a very active early fire season and fatigue might well be a contributing factor. Having said that though, if working fires and returning to an airport on a windy day like that if the pilot was unaware of the wind strength and direction (even without the aid of a wind sock etc etc), then one has demonstrated a total lack of situational awareness.
I have read on another site who the owner/operator is and being a small company with 206’s plus that one Astar suggests that there might have been a new 350 pilot who was enjoying the power and flexibility that a 206 does not offer and got caught…(this is not meant as a slam directed at the outfit; there’s no reason why they can’t provide a quality service based on size alone).
That is supposition on my part but I can’t imagine why someone would make such a poor decision.
Hopefully the pilot makes a full recovery, is able to move on past this and may we all remember that no amount of power will let you get away with mistakes of this magnitude…