Air Tanker Crash in Nevada

An air tanker crashed Sept. 1 shortly after takeoff from Reno-Stead Airport, killing all three crew members. National Transportation Safety Board (NTB) investigators were expected to arrive at the crash site to begin searching for clues into the fatal crash. The Lockheed P2V owned by Neptune Aviation of Missoula, MT, had made one flight over a wildfire south of Lake Tahoe on Monday morning before it returned to the airport to refuel and load fire retardant. The Associated Press reported that witnesses saw what appeared to be a piece of engine or wing fall from the aircraft before it caught fire and crashed about a half-mile from the runway. The AP also reported that the accident marked at least the third time a P2V owned by Neptune suffered a fatal crash while fighting wildfires on government contract over the past 15 years. Two men were killed when one crashed near Missoula in 1994 and two other men died in a crash near Reserve, NM in 1998. In 2002, the Forest Service and Interior Department stopped using Lockheed C-130A and Consolidated Vultee PB4Y tankers after two examples owned by Hawkins & Powers Aviation shed their wings while fighting forest fires, killing five crewmembers.  The fatal accidents led the NTSB to say that no effective mechanism currently exists to ensure the continued airworthiness of these fire-fighting aircraft. The Safety Board said current inspection programs do not adequately account for the increased risk to which these aircraft are now exposed.