That image looking forward along the line of impact is very worrying.

Can't imagine being part of the first responders to this just awful accident -( Those people would be traumatised am sure! Most of us should be grateful we don't get exposed to that level of tragedy.
RIP to the guys still on patrol fighting Mother Nature -(

Can anyone tell me if the experience requirements to operate as a LAT or VLAT pilot are the same as a SEAT pilot, ie. Agricultural Rating, Fire Endorsement? Seeing that BAE-146 (or Avro) nearly buy the farm in the US this year made me think that the kind of low level experience that keeps you alive on a truly miserable and challenging day may be missing in favor of the multi-crew and time on type experience that the agencies require.

Condolences to the families, grieving a thousand miles away.

Given the post that J3 was replying to I can't agree that it was over the top Porter, but that's just me.

Thats because its in an active fire area - where access is controlled to stop aimless rubber neckers. Its also an official accident site on private property. People cant visit and make silly statements about what why and how... Just the professionals.....

Nevermind.

Here's better quality drone footage supplied by NSW Police to the ABC News, than the mobile phone news images supplied by Numpty Aussie.
All photos, and the video, are enlargeable.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-...fires/11900654

From the photos, 1 thing we can say is that the accident occurred at a relatively low angle, definitely didn't plummet into the ground.

The footage makes all the speculation about in-flight breakup and ADS-B data redundant. It reminds me of the images from the Erebus debris field.

Out of interest, which of the 11 ADS-B plots covering the last 5 minutes of the flight (i.e. at about 30 second intervals, on average) do you believe shows "severe turbulence" ?

lookleft agreed but can't find enough engines. Two are obvious.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fdd4d6f2af.jpg

When I first had the news pop up on my phone I pictured that video from 2002 - but now I'm picturing that RJ-85 video from last year.

It's hard to tell from that picture how much of a slope up there is at the site - some pictures make it look quite steep. How does the terrain height at the impact site compare to where they dropped?

Is the gofundme anyone from here or able to shed light on it if its legit

https://www.gofundme.com/f/coulson-t...-memorial-fund

It shows just how fine the tolerances are between a "close call" and an accident with multiple fatalities.

If you can determine the crash location, you might be able to find the topographic map here: https://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/etopo.html

The cause of the crash may never be known, simply because we have no data and probably never will, for those forces, ash and debris directly above a fire storm. One can only begin to imagine. The resultant impact is likely to be one of four things, structural failure, down/back draught, CFIT, Stall. These bushfires are unprecedented and all those putting themselves in harms way fighting them are very brave people indeed.

A tragic site / sight. My condolences to all suffering a loss in this accident.

I wonder what investigations have been done on the configuration and intensity of the turbulence induced by a large fire. and the hazard associated with the extreme temperatures, however transient they may be, as well as the sudden major changes in air density and composition.. How ,much oxygen is around to maintain engine power? In a large fire, these hazards may not be transient. I also wonder whether G meters and G limits are used to help limit aerodynamic loading.

I am not about to make any predictions re the outcome of any investigation.,

So whatever the causes and contributing causes happen to be undoubtedly there will be a large number of factors involving the aircraft, pilots, environment, maintenance in a very complex interaction -. There will be many "layers of cheese" in which the "holes have lined up" and hopefully, a useful, complex lesson of their interaction will emerge so that this kind of accident is not repeated.. .

Which is why everyone was saying wait, rather than speculate; it eliminates unnecessary fear mongering, stress to people related to the incident, and incorrect attribution of the reasons for the accident.

in flight stress may, or may not be relevant. But at the moment no one knows.

I’d love for you to validate your claims. Now that more evidence is out (imagery) it appears in further on posts you are changing your tune. Will you apologise if your original theory is incorrect?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....621334cd56.png
dronephoto
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ec94b8662e.jpg
Crash location

I Think this is the position. Some 1.5 km from last ADS-B.

Last ADS-B per FlightAware was slightly further north than shown: S 35°59'46" E 149°22'12"