Posted on 02/09/2023 5:40:09 AM PST by jaydubya2
Pictures have emerged of the fiery scene of a Boeing 737 crash in southern WA — the first in Australia — as the state's premier hailed the pilots' "remarkable" survival.
The Boeing 737 Fireliner, a civilian aircraft that had been converted for firefighting and operated by Coulson Aviation, came down in the Fitzgerald River National Park, about 460 kilometres south-east of Perth, about 4:40pm on Monday.
The two pilots onboard were rescued from the crash site by helicopter and airlifted to the local hospital in Ravensthorpe.
Despite the large size of the aircraft involved, it is understood both men only suffered minor injuries.
Wonderful news!
Pretty sure the ‘freight’ didn’t make it... Good thing that it was a cargo plane... Surviving that crash, and then living with the deaths of all the passengers would have been mind bending.
That is a miracle.
Good on them! And tie me kangaroo down sport! Be sure to throw some gigantic Australian shrimps on the barbie for them and me.
Wow! That’ll live with them for awhile I’ll bet!
“pilots walk away from fiery wreckage...”
Well, I dunno about walking away but I’ll say one thing......those Aussies sure do have some hard bark on ‘em. SMH
Any landing you walk away from is a good one.
The “freight” was fire retardant. They were flying at 140 mph just above “stall speed” at 150 ft above the terrain. Nearly as close to the edge as it gets.
had been converted for firefighting.................
There’s a certain irony of a plane carrying fire retardant becoming flaming wreckage. (I get it it had likely been dropped already, but still ...)
Notably the wing(s) is still attached to the fuselage in the wreckage photo. I am guessing the ground was quite flat, smooth/soft and the pilots had the opportunity to make this a somewhat ‘controlled,’ wings-level crash.
Can’t re-use the equipment, but they did walk away. Good landing mates!
Maybe you should actually spend some time reading the article, you know, you actually get the facts before posting a lot of assumptions.
“Pretty sure the ‘freight’ didn’t make it... “
“...Boeing 737 Fireliner, a civilian aircraft that had been converted for firefighting...”
I went back and read the ABC article on-line. (I know that violates a FR principle to actually READ an article ...).
there’s speculation they may have clipped a ridgeline and lost power (tree-strike?).
also the plane still had half its load of fire retardant.
If you look at this photo ( https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/bd266b64029e733a4a9b8386e2b1dadd?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=856&cropW=1284&xPos=0&yPos=82&width=862&height=575 )
... the front third of the fuselage is intact and upright. The pilots might have walked out the front left door ;-)
Still amazing.
It’s usually a powder.
Helicopters often use water in drop buckets refilled from lakes/ponds.
Not a freight hauler. Was converted for firefighting capabilities written right there in the intro. An empty water tanker.
Good landing though I’ll give them that. They survived!
Bump
Yes the area is quite flat and remote. There’s speculation of why they were even fighting that fire in the first place. My thinking is because AUS is so gun shy about wildland fires.
Here was another miracle crash survivor in Bahrain ź note the gap in the guard rial- his car punched through that small gap and burst into flames
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFRLodk8OZo&t=33s
The pilots are from North America.
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