Tanker 134, RIP

As many of you would know, Coulson Group EC130Q Tanker 134 was lost 23 Jan 2020 fighting a fire in the Snowy Mountains area of NSW Australia.

Lost were Ian McBeth, Paul Hudson & Rick DeMorgan the three man American crew.

As a retired military C130 FE I have loved seeing & hearing Tanker 134 depart & return from RAAF Richmond over the last couple of months.

On Thursday I was heading in late to work and watched from my back deck as they flew low over my house on departure, she sounded so good & looked sensational!

As they flew past I said out loud "Go you good thing", something I have been doing for some time now. I walked back inside & had a quick look at Flight Radar24 to see where they were heading and then got ready for work & headed in.

It wasn't long before the posts started about a fire bomber having lost contact & the phone started ringing, people asking if I knew anything, family checking on me etc.

She wasn't back & was no longer on any of the tracking sites, my heart sank.

I then had a face to face with the flight commander at 37SQN (RAAF C130J-30) who took the call, it was one of those conversations that experienced military aviators have when something has gone seriously wrong, short & professional, straight to the point. It was obvious that N134CG, Tanker 134 was lost and it was a matter of time before the official announcement was made.

I thank all the fire fighters both ground & aircrew for their heroic efforts this season.

I can't find the words to quantify the sacrifice this crew made on Thursday

RIP guys, thank you.

My last photo of 134 departing RAAF Richmond taken from my back deck 3rd January 2020.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2iaH​eKS

Sad story, thanks for sharing.

Very sad, these folks are heros in every sense of the term. Thanks for posting the image Phil.

it was shattering.
Those families way across the water - my heart goes out to them.

They came, they gave us their best. So sad

Three heroes of our summer fires

Thanks Phil for putting this up here.

As many of the recipients of awards today said, the real heroes are fighting fires. I saw on the news today some of the family of the lost crew arriving in Sydney.
Good to see Police escorting them through the Airport. Just the start of many gestures of respect and appreciation of the crew's efforts they will get while here.

Tragic,

These guys like so many put their lives on the line to selflessly help/save others.

Respect to them and all personnel fighting the fires.

Condolences to their loved ones.

Kev