One of the most dangerous jobs in aviation
78
aviation-related wildland-firefighter deaths in the US, 2000–2013: 26% of all wildland-firefighter deaths (CDC MMWR, 2015)
10,725 h
mean flight experience of the pilots-in-command who died — these are not rookies (CDC)
2×
night accident rate vs day for helicopter operations (US Army data applied to USFS, Colorado DFPC review)
What goes wrong
- Leading causes: engine/structural failure 24%, loss of control 24%, failure to maintain clearance from terrain or obstacles 20%, weather 15% (CDC, 2000–2013)
- Power-line and communication-line strikes are the most common cause in NTSB firefighting and external-load helicopter incidents (Colorado DFPC review)
- In 49 days of summer 2020, three helicopters and three air tankers crashed; six aerial firefighters died (AirMed&Rescue)
- Every one of these is a human in a cockpit, low, fast, in smoke, on terrain they have never seen