Well said.

As NOTAM is talking about a week before fuel is available it appears the issue is serious.

Tank use and turbulence can affect when the trouble occurs

Thoughtful words.....................

My heart is breaking tonight. Bomber 134 has been a familiar sound on centre for the last few months, and I met the crew at Richmond merely days ago.

Blue skies.

Standard practice. Been through it a couple of times.

DF.

Very sorry to the families, friends and colleagues for their loss.

What a brutal fire season this one has been.. I’m in awe of the work all the crews do..

I can't put it better.
We are so grateful to the crews who come here to do this difficult and dangerous work.
Very sad.
I hope their families and colleagues know of the admiration of the Australian people who want embrace them in this sad time.
Respect.

Heroes
 

This is so devastating news, I listened to the sister crew as they did their runs into Mt Eccles and saved the park. It was from the sister ship based in Avalon. I remember thinking at the time with the smoke terrain and speed of approach at 1500 feet how risky this was and their courage at taking on such a task.
On the radio, cool, calm voices got the job done laid down the pink retardent and saved a friends avery on Mt Eccles Road, town of Macarthur did not have to evacuate and there is a great picture of the c130 in their bulletin.
There will be speculation as to what took place in the Snowey fire ground.
But it wont change the fact that we just lost three great people.

RIP you were heroes to the end risking your lives for us Australians!

Yep 3 helicopter down, piiots walked or swum away from them virtually uninjured

Not that it matters but are you sure it was bomber 134? From my knowledge only Bomber 391 (RJ85) and Bomber 390 another C130 from Collusion the Avalon based bombers were involved down that way, there were at least 3 C130s in Australia for the season. Regardless all these crews are heroes and their skills level most other pilots far far behind.

On top of that had the sky crane go down in a dam near the Thompson Dam this time last year. Also a fatal chopper last year i think?

Walking Ballast says it all for all of us. You will not be forgotten. Thank you from my heart.

This should be printed on a plaque and given to their families.

sister crew
 

Sorry correction the herc that saved our park was not the one that crashed it was the ship now grounded out of respect and investigation if the one in nsw had a catastrophic failure or not?

A BK117 water-bombing, in August 2018.

Something on behalf of fellow aviators would be appropriate. I would like to contribute to this.

The accident aircraft has a chequered history. Built as an EC-130Q for the US Navy’s TACAMO program, it served from 1981 to 1994 before being retired to the Davis-Monthan boneyard. Subsequently stored at Western International’s boneyard at Tucson, it was used as a spares source for the C-130 operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. It was then sold in 2017 to Coulson, who restored it to airworthy condition configured for fire suppression.

Good description of the aircraft and its equipment here: Coulson and SkyTrac partner on Next Generation Air Tanker program

In aviation film archives somewhere there is an horrific video of the wings coming off a C130 during water bombing.

We have no idea of the causes at this stage but stuctural issues would not surprise me, low level water bombing involves a lot of rough manoevering while heavily loaded which must put a lot of accumulated stress on the airframe, certainly more than normal airline operations.

Hawkins & Powers C-130A, 2002.