Tributes flow for trio of US ex-military flying aces
As the remains of three US air crew who died when an airbomber crash fighting the NSW bushfires were driven from the crash site, tributes have flowed for the highly skilled trio of ex-military ace flyers.
NSW
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They were part of a dedicated group of ex-military ace flyers who chased bushfires around the world, from the Amazon to Australia.
Captain Ian McBeth, ex-Marine First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, and Afghanistan war veteran Flight Engineer Rick DeMorgan had decades of experience in the cockpits of defence force C-130 Hercules before they joined civilian international fire fighting giant Coulson Aviation.
Fellow war veterans and colleagues paid tribute to their bravery on Friday as Australia Transport Safety Board investigators arrived at the wreckage of the air tanker Zeus in the state’s Snowy region where it had been fighting Thursday’s fierce fires.
Crash investigators are searching for the cockpit flight recorder which records the last two hours of flight time. C-130 Hercules do not carry black box flight data recorders.
Superintendent Paul Condon, commander of the Monaro police district, said the remains of the plane covered one kilometre.
“There’s not much intact at all. It’s very horrific,” Supt Condon said.
It crashed on land owned by RFS volunteer James Fitzgerald, creating a blaze that destroyed three buildings on his wildlife sanctuary.
Supt Condon said they were hoping to recover the three bodies on Friday.
Father-of-two Rick DeMorgan, 43, was an Afghanistan war veteran with 24 years in the US Air Force during which he flew 4000 hours in C-130s with 2000 hours combat experience during 17 combat deployments.
“He wasn’t just a flight engineer, he was a leader and a calming force in a squadron full of battle hardened warriors,” fellow USAF veteran Craig Walker said on Friday.
“He went out of his way to help others learn and become the best they could be.”
He said that Mr DeMorgan, who lived in Florida, had been an enlisted instructor at the Air Force Weapons School, the “Air Force’s toughest school for aviators”.
“Rick was an absolute professional who knew the airplane and every system onboard, he was truly brilliant,” Mr Walker said.
Mr DeMorgan’s sister Jen DeMorgan told friends her brother was a hero.
“He was a beloved friend, colleague, father, son and most of all brother,” she said.
“To most the sky was the limit, to them it was home. Rest in the arms of angels.”
Father-of-three and pilot Captain McBeth, 44, was with the Montana Air National Guard, a state aerial militia unit where he had been fighting fires for years in C-130s.
“It is with a heavy heart that I inform you we lost a valued airmen and friend last night,” the 120th Airlift Wing Commander of the Montano Air National Guard Colonel Buel Dickson, posted on their website on Friday.
“Ian was instrumental in the flying success of the 120th Airlift Wing and will be dearly missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family as they navigate this painful and tragic situation. It is never an easy thing to manage, the loss of a brother in arms affects us all. “
First Officer Hudson, 42, was a highly decorated retired lieutenant colonel from the US Marine Corps.
He had recently retired after 20 years in a number of positions including as a C-130 pilot.
“A recent Marine Corps retiree he died as he lived … helping others,” one of his friends, Tennessee Assistant District Attorney Mitch Eisenberg, posted on Facebook.
The three men were among the mainly ex-military crews with the Canadian-based family company Coulson Aviation, whose fleet of aircraft last year battled fires in the Amazon, Bolivia, Chile and California before arriving in Australia with helicopters, two ex-military C-130 Hercules and Boeing 737 Fireliners.
The air tanker Zeus was involved in dropping fire retardant on the fire that threatened homes in Turramurra in Sydney’s north in November.
In August last year, Zeus was in San Diego County training pilots with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection but it is not known if it was the same crew who died this week.
This is the 19th year the Coulson Group as been battling blazes across Australia.
The state government recently bought a 737 Fireliner water bomber — along with two lead planes — from the company for $26.3 million.
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Coulson Group pilot Jonas Doherty, in Australia flying one of the 737 Fireliners, has been fighting fires for 15 years and described the ceaseless summer of Australian fires as an “unimaginable disaster” and the worst he has ever seen.
ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood said investigators would be looking at wind speeds, temperatures and the C-130’s maintenance records as part of their investigation.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a state memorial on February 23 to honour all those who had died this fire season, including the three Rural Fire Service volunteers and the American crew.