Pilot dies after firefighting plane crashes working Horse Gulch Fire near Helena
Evacuation orders in place for homes on north side of Canyon Ferry
BY: BLAIR MILLER - JULY 10, 2024 3:30 PM
A 45-year-old pilot was killed Wednesday in a firefighting plane crash just after noon on Hauser Reservoir near Spokane Bay while fighting the Horse Gulch Fire, which is burning just north of Canyon Ferry Reservoir, the county sheriff confirmed.
Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton confirmed just after 5 p.m. that the pilot, a 45-year-old woman from a different country who was flying for an Idaho-based company, had died in the crash. He and the Federal Aviation Administration said earlier in the afternoon only the pilot was on board at the time of the crash. Officials were working to contact the woman’s family before releasing her name.
The crash happened around 12:10 p.m., according to Dutton, the FAA and two witnesses who called 911 to report the crash on the southwestern side of Hauser Reservoir.
{snip}
= new reply since forum marked as read
And I plan to find some answers with some contacts later in the day.
First question is, who was she working for? This is a serious question since one particular Senatorial candidate owns a company that provides such firefighting services. That company doesn't have a very good rep among the firefighting personnel who have little say in who gets the federal contracts to engage in this service in concert with the government services who do the firefighting.
I was just talking about the issues and concerns with the company I'm thinking of with a friend who did business with that outfit, and all the other contractors, and has nothing positive to say about their business model, their lack of safety practices and treatment of employees. It's something of a business of scoundrels in certain areas, the air service fleets are usually private entities.
This is sad, I'll see what I can find out. The air crews for fighting fires out here is a small community and word travels fast.
Sadly, many of these contracting outfits just barely pass muster to qualify for the gig. Sorry to her of her loss. The news, in the region, that I heard this morning was that she was from outside the US. We get a lot of Canadian firefighters in these parts so I wonder if that's where she's from. They send a lot of scoops in this area. Our US "fleet" is old and not being upgraded fast enough because of funding for USDAFS activities, they can't even pay the firefighters a decent wage. And then contractors eat up a lot of funding because they can charge the government exorbitant fees because of their novelty.
It's the kind of outfit that the candidate, Sheehy, was running. That gang doesn't have a good rep in the fire fighting environment in these parts. A remnant of the concept of the wild west. hee haw.
ETA: The main hubs for the region when it comes to wildland fire fighting are Boise, ID and Missoula, MT.
According to agriculture aviation magazine AgAir Update, Turchetti was one of the first female agriculture pilots in Brazil.
That's a dangerous profession, even with topnotch equipment.
Thanks for the update, haven't called my friend yet.
She was probably also the first woman aviator fire fighter here, at least in the region that I know of. Tragedy for certain.
So heat could have been a factor, that area, and here, are in the heat dome which make flying dicey, like that style of flying isn't.
There have been some life flights that couldn't fly due to the heat in the region already. And then there's elevation and heat, a lot of factors, it's a tough job and you have to be damn good.
