Coulson 737 crash Australia

A Coulson firefighting 737 has crashed near Ravensthorpe Australia. The aircraft was operating over the Fitzgerald River National Park. Other firefighting aircraft continued to work the fire while the pilots were recovered. Both pilots survived with minor injuries.

This is the second crash for Coulson in Australia in less than five years. In 2020, a Coulson C-130 working a fire in Snowy Mountain region crashed, killing all three crew members on board. One of the two Coulson 737s that is based in Australia suffered damage last year when there was a low speed impact with a hangar door that caused damage to the radome and engine cowling.

The aircraft is believed to be N619SW.

A firefighting aircraft has crashed while battling blazes in WA’s Great Southern.

The 737 air tanker was operating over the Fitzgerald River National Park, south of Ravensthorpe and near Hopetoun, when it came down about 4pm on Monday.

Incredibly, the two pilots on board suffered only minor injuries.

“The two pilots on board were retrieved from the crash site by helicopter and airlifted to Ravensthorpe Airport,” WA Police said Monday evening.

“Both survived the crash with minor injuries and were conveyed to hospital via St John WA.”

7news.com.au...

Thank goodness the crew is ok!

The 737 is a relatively new platform “nexgen” fire tanker. Through the grapevine Boeing was highly not happy that they converted two to a tanker.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Glad the pilots are OK. Firefighting is dangerous work.

a reply to: TonyS

Yeah it is. Nothing but the utmost respect for air tanker pilots. Those guys have saved a lot of lives over the years. Much respect for the ground guys too, but air tanker pilots are a whole other level.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Amazing the crew survived. Usually crashes involving firefighting birds are not something to be walked away from.

Looks like it hasn't been in service for very long, and only a couple months in the region. Hopefully they can get a replacement sooner than later.

This flight was operated by a Coulson Flying Tankers 737-300 Fireliner registered N619SW. The 737 was delivered new to Southwest Airlines in 1995 and acquired by Coulson in 2019. It entered fire fighting service in the United States after conversion in summer 2022. The 737 flew to Australia in December 2022 and has been active fighting bush fires since then.

Coulson fire fighting 737 suffers accident in Australia

a reply to: Zaphod58

Both pilots survived with minor injuries

That's called a good landing, they walked away... Thank God.

Coulson still has a good record for the work they do. Yes they lost precious crew in past couple years... But this one they survived, scathed, but lived.

The C-130 loss was the last one I remember.

The preliminary report was released by the ATSB. The crew made a partial drop, and stopped early because the retardant was going into a burned area. They came back and made a second drop, with a targeted airspeed of 118 knots. The drop was performed, and the airspeed dropped below the target speed. The crew advanced the throttle, and pulled the nose up before the engines powered up, and the stick shaker activated. The aircraft reached a maximum descent rate of 1800 fpm at impact. The crew was unable to open the cockpit door, or either window on the first attempt. On a second attempt they were able to open a window and egress through it.

ATSB preliminary report