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Staff Sgt. Stephany Richards / USAF via Reuters
There are eight so-called Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) planes in the U.S. One of them crashed in South Dakota on Sunday.
Updated at 5:41 p.m. ET: An Air Force C-130 tanker crashed while battling a wildfire in southwest South Dakota, killing at least one of the six crewmembers aboard and forcing officials to ground seven other such aicraft.
The cause of the Sunday evening crash of the aircraft from the North Carolina Air National Guard's 145th Airlift Wing has not been determined, and the U.S. Northern Command released few details about the crash.
"There were casualties, and our thoughts and prayers go out to those who were injured and those who lost their lives," the U.S. Northern Command said in a statement, without saying how many crew members were killed or injured.
Relatives of a North Carolina man said he was killed in the crash. Gracie Partridge told the Charlotte Observer the Air Force confirmed that her son-in-law, Lt. Col. Paul Mikeal, 42, died.
A helicopter landed near the crash site and took three crewmembers to Custer to be transported by ambulance to Rapid City Regional Hospital for treatment, The Rapid City Journal reported.
"The cause of the crash has not been determined, and the incident is under investigation," a military statement added.
The aircraft went down at around 6 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET), the military said. At the time, the crew was fighting the White Draw Fire near the town of Edgemont, S.D.
"Our number one priority right now is taking care of the crew," said Pat Cross, a spokesman handling information for the White Draw fire, according to NBC station KNBN.
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The worst fire season in recent history is taking its toll with large fires burning thousands of acres in Colorado while others consume areas in Montana, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Seven other firefighting C-130s are being held on the ground because of the crash, which comes as states in the West are grappling with one of the busiest and most destructive wildfire seasons ever.
The C-130 that went down is a military plane refashioned to fight fires. It is one of eight so-called Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) planes in the country.
Bringing together the Department of Defense and U.S. Forest Service program, MAFFS aircraft provide additional aerial firefighting resources when commercial and private airtankers are no longer able to meet the needs of the Forest Service.
Residents tour Colorado blaze devastation
The plane disappeared from radar contact earlier on Sunday, Dakota Fire information spokeswoman Julie Molzahn told the Journal.
Residents, forced to evacuate their homes in path of the Waldo Canyon blaze in Colorado Springs, return to find only burned-out remains of their communities. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
Around 180 people were fighting the fire, which had spread to 4,200 acres and was 30 percent contained, the newspaper added. Workers are battling the blaze with the help of four helicopters and three air tankers, it reported.
Firefighters are facing additional hazards including steep terrain and rattlesnakes, officials told KNBN.
Msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton and NBC station KNBN contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Herky Birds are awesome and forgiving. Limited production and age can be a problem because of limited parts availability. Our government likes to work on the cheap. Kudos to the crews. (AC's 70-71)
Don't mean to be a nit-picker but...
The C-130 is anything BUT limited production. They first flew in 1956 and are STILL being built so parts availability is not an issue.
As for our government working on the cheap, almost nothing the government does is cheap. Can you name a cheap military aircraft? The Hercs are one of the most cost effective and durable aircraft ever built by anyone.
Thank you for your service! The ACs are amazing! Unfortunately they are not being replaced and the few we still have are very old and tired.
So let me get this straight... Obama can raise $260,926,200 for his campain, yet we can't put out a damn fire in the woods?
And How much do you think ROMNEY has raised IDIOT??
Romney is not the President.
This is not about who is in office or not. All the last 4 administrations have failed and fires have burned, homes have been lost and peopled died. Focus on the problem and figure out a solution and quit the simple minded blame game. The country would be a better place if we started focusing on solutions and not on simply trying to blame the other person for what they "didn't" do.
wtfwtfwtfwtfwtf, First of all we all know romney is not going to raise money. Remember he said let the foreclosure take it's course to let people lose their homes. I bet you don't remember that.
Kathy same mindless comment... try to focus on the subject of the forest fire and the people that were hurt in the C-130 crash as oppose to your self centered and self serving off the subject comments..
Under the Constitution Presidents don't have spending power, only Congress does.
Also, these aren't a "...damn fire in the woods...", they're major conflagrations caused by many, many factors coming into play simultaneously.
You can try to paint it as a political issue all day and all night but that doesn't make it so. Politics has nothing to do with it.
There are many, many factors that play into wildfires and unfortunately politics is a factor. Environmentalist extremists use money and power get federal laws passed that make it nearly impossible for any logging to be done to thin forest stands to healthy populations. Yes, a properly thinned forest will still burn, but not near as intensly as the wildfires we have come to experience nowadays. So, politics is a small role in play of many factors.
Anyway, everyone please be careful over the fourth and remember the firefighters and displaced citizens who will not get to celebrate Independence Day.
Not to JUST pick on OBAMA but all our so called leaders. None of them have done crud to help these guys out. We spend fortunes on pork projects that do nothing to directly ensure the safety of our people and homes. We know there will be MORE large fires this year, and more next year, and the year after that but we don't significantly spend money on these programs. Not compared with other garbage we fund.
So yeah, Obama's record on this is nonexistent but so was Bush's and so is every D, R, and I in Congress. Just does not get them votes so they don't care.
There were deaths in this crash. Some of the crew did not make it. Heartfelt prayers go out to the families of the crew members who were injured and those that perished.
Winds last night brought the smell of smoke from this fire nearly 140 miles away. Trees 6-8 inches in diameter were tossed around like match sticks.
Perhaps there was something about those winds that caused the plane to go down.
We have been having horrific winds throughout the wildfire fights here. They just ground the planes until the green light is given that it is safe to fly again. Unfortunately this gives the fire the upper hand. Maddening. It is a tinderbox here. So dry and LOTS of fuel for the fires
Firefighting, along with Earthquake, Hurricane, Flood, Drought, and Tornado protection should be a local level expense. Maybe state, but never federal. a few places can experience them all, but most do not.
It is the idea that the Feds can support every "Emergency" for these very common disasters with no funding that bothers me.
Insurance works by many people not willing to gamble a risk and pooling their money so the few that do get help. The Federal Government can't run a Barbers shop (recent story covered how much the barbers make at Congress and how we subsidize them).
People who say they want it because their tax dollars pay for it..well..they don't..to the tune of Trillions. A word that had little meaning when I grew up.
As a former Military Officer/Pilot I wish them well, but lets live within our means.
Thats for sure....Seems everyone wants the Emergency disaster funds but they hate big government..UNLESS there trying to get something from them for FREE, I say let there own private insh company's pay for the damage if they don't have enough OH WELL....they might just have to pull a few million out of there off shore bank accounts huh..
The military is reimbursed for the cost of operating the C-130 MAFFS flights by the agency having jurisdiction over the fire. These are National forest in a lot of cases so the Fed goevernment should be a role in aiding in the fire fighting effort. As I said in my previous post the MAFFs are roll on/roll off pallet mounted units that just roll into a C-130. No mods to the A/C needed. When not in use the C-130 does its normal dutiea and the MAFF units are stored for future use. Look it up on the web.. its cost effective and makes sense
we the people. It's all about the money, isn't it? No sympathy, empathy or compassion for fellow mankind. What do you propose we do when a natural disaster occurs in several states simultaneously, as is currently the case on most of the East coast? Let them eat cake?
I sincerely hope that you never experience a grievous loss as the result of a natural disaster.
Here is a great topic for any real investigative journalists that are still out there. Why is the US Forest Service not using the world's biggest air tanker to help fight these fires?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/06/30/in-colorado-wildfires-worst-in-state-history-why-wont-the-forest-service-use-the-biggest-firefighting-tool-available/
If the President can fly to Colorado to look concerned about people losing their homes in these fires why can't the President tell the Forest Service to use this plane?
The Poor poor Millionaires how will they ever survive??...
I would like to be one of them. Come up form mommie's basement, the koolaid is ready!
Ignorant comment..look at the news and see the faces of the people that have lost everything.
Say that to the family and friends of the people who died.
But rest easy your ego has been satisfied you have your "fame" with your meaningless post.
I wish the article would have stated where the plane was based at. I was assigned at the Charlotte-Douglas Airport, NC as and advisor to the ANG unit there. They had several planes setup for MAFFS. I don't know if the still do now but, it would be nice to know.
You must remember. This is MSNBC. Never well written.
Amazed and Irritated: The plane was based out of the Air National Guard unit in Charlotte, NC.
It is being reported here that the plane was from CLT Douglas. it was one of the NC National Guards.
I saw on Xfinity news under Comcast that it was indeed from the 145th Airlift Wing. There they said there was thought to be 6 onboard with 3 recovered but there has been no confirmation of casualties as of yet. It's been a few years since I left there but, I am concerned since I got to know some of the crews while I was there.
The fire service also uses helicopters of all sizes with bladder bags. They can use local water supplies by dropping the bag for refilling.
The big tankers do go down. It seems every year one crashes. Dangerous flying. Really brave men and women.
Note that most of the firefighters are seasonals with no benefits of any kind. They are the unsung heros on the fireline who barely get minimum wage. They are financing college in many cases.
Our prayers go out to the crew and their families. Thank God you were able to surivie the crash. A quick recovery to all involved.
Smokey, it is very fortunate that 3 of them survived but from what I have heard locally, not all the crew survived.
This is very hazardous work. The fact that any survived at all says a lot for the pilot and crew of both the plane and the rescue helicopter. My thoughts and prayers for all involved.
As CO continues to eradicate it's wild horses which consume dry brush therefore reducing wildfire fuel, these fires will become more frequent and devasting. Bureau of Land Management continues genocide on the wild horses removing them from their legal domain with taxpayer dollars to benefit special interests.
I thought horses cropped grass.
Disaster relief is always a problem. You're talking about people who've lost everything, & are therefore "losers". America hates to lose, & we don't want to give them something for nothing. We especially don't want the government giving them anything, as that looks like socialism.
So the correct conservative response is to let them die. Or pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Of course pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is a physical impossiblity, but what's impossible to people who believe in creationism?
To "Best laugh I've had in a long time"
I think you may be accurate about the loadmasters in the back not surviving; I live about nine miles from the fire and here in Hot Springs we are hearing that there are three crew members missing or unaccounted for.
In my younger years I was a wild land fire fighter, I can't give enough thanks to the men and women fighting these blazes. The situation is more extreme then I have seen since 1988 with high temperatures, record low rain fall and hot dry winds. South Dakota doesn't get much recognition because there are only nine people per square mile (!) but there are folks risking there lives to save property way out here too!
Y'all. Thank God the crew members seem to have survived. But as to the burned houses, many probably were lost because homeowners didn't clear bush and trees close in to their places. Aa.
That's the third one I know of that has gone down. Two civilian and a military. Wake Forrest Medical Center has lost three Air Care helicopters. Two to crashes and one to a traffic accident. Third landed okay but had to be put on a truck to get it home and unfortunately hit a bridge on the way shaving the top off it. Would you believe missed it by thiiiis much.We need to get the military home and let some of the soldiers work on the fire line. They can do alot more good here than losing another war in Afghanistan. I thought the governor could call up the National Guard in emergencies. This is a national emergency every bit as real as the riots in the 60s. We use them during a flood or earthquake.
The National Guard are working the fire scenes here in Colorado. They are busy trying to guard the properties of the evacuated citizens. Know what a big deal is here now? A$$holes who are burglarizing the houses left from the fires. Nice, huh? Scumbag wastes of human breath.
you got that right
This whole thing! Just like America razed Berlin, America could extinguish these fires. Except it wouldn't be warranted. Let the forest burn like they should and have forever. Regulate zoning standards and insurance in wooded areas to prevent all these lives and housing losses.
Best wishes of speedy recovery to the crew.
A little historical footnote "save"... I believe it was the Russians, British and the Americans that actually "Razed"Berlin... I am assuming that your talking about 1945? I'm not sure if carpet bombing and dropping incidnary bombs on a forest fire will work but I guess it would be worth a try. I guess the bomb craters would create ponds eventually..which would be a future source of water for the animals to drink from and a place to draw water from to fight future forest fires. If we uses really big bombs, the craters could almost be ponds we could stock with fish. Then it would open up the area to fishermen also. I kind of like the idea.... We could use up all the bombs we already have and had not used in previous wars so the DoD would save on Bomb storage cost. Because we got rid of the old Bombs we' have to build new bombs which would provide American's in the bomb building industry/sector more work and new jobs! The old WW2 planes converted to drop fire suppressing medium could be reconverted to dropping bombs again... thus an increase in jobs in the aircraft repair and modification business. I really like your idea and way of thinking!!
Was mainly American bombers based out of England, with some British airmen. A gigantic task it was to destroy Berlin. America did it. and no I wasn't thinking about dropping 500 Lbs bombs. just lots of planes loaded with fire retardants.
How about a pipeline from the states that have too much water to that states that are dry.
We can put a man on the moon but we solve this problem?
Oh wait, there is no money on it, is not oil going thru the pipeline.
OMG - you have given Mutt another idea for a political commercial!!!!
There are seven so-called Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System
Prayers go out to the crew
God Bless the crew and their families, along with all of the firefighters currently battling the flames in the air and on land.
I don't understand why the AF took the other tankers out of service. They don't know what caused this crash. There does not seem to be a definitive reason to ground the other tankers at this time. The C-130 has been in service for decades. When they need all the resources they can get to help contain this fire, the AF takes seven other tankers out of service for an unknown reason. It doesn't make any sense. They owe someone an explanation as to why they are doing this. If one F-15 crashed, they wouldn't ground the whole fleet, so why are they doing this? These people need every asset they can get to help with this fire and the AF just took seven aircraft out of service that could have been a valuable tool. Why? I think they need to answer that question.
Hang in there, South Dakota. We totally understand here in Colorado. Horrible that firefighters lost their lives. We are still begging for rain. I hope that South Dakota recognizes them with a permanent memorial like Colorado did for the Storm King fire firefighter victims/heroes back in 1994. 14 firefighters lost. We will never forget their bravery.