To be fair, this happened late afternoon, down south of Perth. It was 'breaking' on MSM channels as the 6pm bulletin started. By the time anyone would have got reporters down/near there, it would be dark and there were no 'dramatic' pictures to share. Also no pax, you know how fast they stopped giving a sh... about UPS6 because it was 'just' a cargo flight.... media don't really change. If they can't quote someone saying the plane 'plummeted' and 'we was gunna die', there doesn't seem to be much 'interest' except by those in the industry.

I think once these pics hit the news, they'll (at least in Perth) be running them all day.

The media is a business that is income and ego driven. The press will report on things that have public interest and affect a large group emotionally. A light plane landing in the suburbs evokes many emotions from fear for the occupants, elation on the survival aspects, pilots skills and thankful passengers and anger as to who could have been injured on the ground, ie good ratings. Qantas is the same, most of the population uses QF services, the public expects a flawless service and anything abnormal will invoke emotions in potential travelers. Aviation is also an easy target to get fear and good news stories, ie everyone almost died when the engine failed (plane plummeted, sparks were seen, peopled screamed), but they didn't and luckily they landed safely (the plane flew on and landed without incident) , the pilots heroic skill got them safely home...(the pilot did what he's trained/paid for, planes are designed for etc etc)

Today the Earthquake is the main topic so everything else gets sidelined as there is a human grief story unfolding, all the emotions for viewers to process and keep glued to screens for updates.

There is no big conspiracy, just what the media believes we would want to see the most, and to be honest there will not be a lot that will want to see continued coverage of a burning 737 in the middle of nowhere except in passing now that we know everyone is safe.

Double donk fail due birds perhaps?

There's a steady stream of fire fighting aircraft accidents worldwide, even with LATs. Its very demanding and dangerous work, crashes will happen for so many reasons it's impossible to start to speculate on what went wrong without further info.

So the main thing here is that the pilots "walked away with minor injuries" and live to fly again. Aircraft can be replaced.. highly-skilled and trained pilots are more difficult.

I think this would have to be the first airline passenger-class jet aircraft hull loss in Australia, wouldn't it? The PanAm 707 overrun at Sydney in 1969 (https://aviation-safety.net/database...?id=19691201-0) was repaired, apparently.

RAAF 707?

True, I'd forgotten that one. I stand corrected.

In my defence, you should have quoted my full post, which included the source of my claim:
​​​​​​​
https://www.nafc.org.au/fleet/

Speculating from Google Earth, X marks the spot:

33°52'51.26" S 119°52'43.29" E or -33.880906° 119.878692°

In my defence

Presumably ATSB won't investigate as there are no implications for transport safety.

As usual, Juan raises a good point - what exactly was the mission? Why was a very expensive bit of kit deployed to a fire in what is essentially uninhabited scrubland?

Ever since the Black Saturday Royal Commission there has been an big focus in Australia on keeping fires small and hitting them hard as fast. It's why Victoria now uses what is called PDD (Pre-determined dispatch) where aircraft are deployed to all Grass and Scrub fires at the same time as the first truck. (If you call 000 an aircraft will respond).

LATs play this role by hitting fires in remote country and helping contain them before they are a threat to property. Just this year the Victorian LATs (an RJ85 and Q400) have been deployed multiple times to lightning strike fires in the Big Desert National park in the states NW. And have in the past been used on tiny fires (less than a few sqm) in remote alpine areas in the far east. They also become cost-effective when the reduce the number of flights required by Air tractors and commitment of ground resources.

Latest in the West Australian newspaper - my emphasis.

Lottery tickets & new underwear!

It definitely is the first “hull loss” of a Boeing 737 in Australia, reported by ABC

NSW has PDD after Black Summer findings. Was trialed at three locations (Sydney, Cowra and Wagga Wagga) within 50km radius but now expanded extended to 100km radius but is only activated when the FDR is High or above. No LATS have been used for PDD.

Predatory birds soar in the fire front to capture lunch escaping ie snakes, lizards, rabbits etc

As that link notes it's not the whole list of aircraft available, NAFC arrange planes for the commonwealth and on behalf of the States but the states also contract their own assets above that including the NSW owned B210 "Marie Bashir" and NSW contracted B137 for a total of 500 + aircraft available

Cool heads and more than a few ounces of luck. So glad to see they live to fight another day.Certainly that airframe is scrap.

The only civilian jet airliner I can recall living to fly again was a Japan Airlines DC8-62 that ditched in fog 2.5 miles short in SFO in1968. It was rebuilt and flew on for another 33 years.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....844330dcf1.jpg