Three Killed in Air Tanker Crash

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This is sad as it was caught on video!

Walter
HOU

By TOM GARDNER

WALKER, Calif. (AP) - An air tanker fighting a blaze near Yosemite National
Park caught fire Monday and crashed in this Northern California resort town,
killing all three crew members and just missing a mechanic's shop,
authorities and witnesses said.

A Reno, Nev., television station captured the scene on videotape as the
wings broke off the C-130 transport plane. The fiery fuselage then rolled
left and spiraled nose first into the ground and exploded in a ball of
flame.

All three crew members were killed in the crash "under unknown circumstances
after making a drop" of retardant, said Jerry Johnston, operations officer
with the Federal Aviation Administration in Hawthorne, Calif.

"It was destroyed by impact and by fire," he said. Investigators for the
National Transportation Safety Board were on the way to the scene.


It was unclear whether anyone on the ground was injured, though medical
crews were on the way, said Laura Williams, spokeswoman for the Sierra Front
Interagency Dispatch Center in Minden, Nev.

Witnesses said the plane crashed within 150 feet of an auto shop.

"I'm standing here looking at the tail section," shop owner Mike Mandichaka
told The Associated Press by telephone. "My shop is right next door. It
almost hit it."

The tanker was battling an 8,000-acre blaze that had forced 400 people out
of their homes in Walker, which is 90 miles south of Reno, and about 25
miles north of Yosemite. At least one home has burned.

Other aircraft battling the fire were grounded.

Reno station KOLO-TV's news crew was interviewing a man watching the skies
with his own camcorder near Walker Sporting Goods Mobile Home Park when the
plane came into view.

The plane came in low to the ground trailing a red flow of fire retardant
above tall green pines. Both wings suddenly snapped off, with flashes of
flame as they separated.

"We saw it circle around once and then drop through the middle there. ...
That's where we saw it break up," reporter Terri Russell said.

The fire from the crash threatened about 10 structures in the immediate
area, including homes, trailers and the mechanic's shop.

The wildfire began Saturday in a remote section of the Humbolt-Toiyabe
National Forest that the Marines use for survival training. Unexploded
ordnance in the steep, rugged area was slowing containment efforts,
according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

The agency said the fire was "human" caused but had no other details. It was
10 percent contained Monday evening - up from 7 percent earlier in the day -
and was being fought by some 671 firefighters.

---

On the Net:

Fire centers: http://www.nifc.gov and http://sierrafront.net

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