| Plane went down while fighting fire |
A series of mayday calls and the words "I'm going down" were reported just before a pilot crashed his plane while fighting a wildfire last week, aviation investigators said in a preliminary report released Thursday.
The maydays came just seconds after the pilot, 42-year-old Gert Marais of Fort Benton, Mont., dropped a load of retardant on the fire, the report from the NTSB.
The report does not say what caused the April 15 crash on a remote part of Fort Carson, but it describes some of the events that day. The NTSB said details in the report could change. The final report will be issued after the investigation is complete, which could take months.
NTSB air safety investigator Aaron Sauer has said the investigation has not turned up anything wrong with the plane, a single-engine Air Tractor AT-602 registered to Aero-Applicators Inc. in Sterling. Sauer has said Marais had more than 10,000 hours of flying time.
Aero-Applicators has a contract to supply aerial firefighting services to the state forest service. Marais was summoned to help fight the Fort Carson fire and left Sterling, about 150 miles northeast, at around 17:00, the report says.
Marais was directed to drop retardant on trees north of the fire, the report said.
The Forest Service officials serving as the air-to-ground contact told Marais and the other pilot that winds were gusting at 35 to 45 mph.
Both planes first made a dry run, with the second airplane flying about 500 feet above Marais to act as a spotter, the NTSB report said.
During the live run, Marais made the drop but missed the target by about 500 feet, hitting the Forest Service contact and his vehicle, the report said. A second or two later, the maydays were made and the plane's right wing crashed into the ground next to Colorado 115 around 18:10, the report said.
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