Colorado Springs --
The deadly crash of a military cargo plane fighting a South Dakota wildfire forced officials to ground seven other Air Force air tankers, removing critical aircraft from the skies during one of the busiest and most destructive wildfire seasons ever to hit the West.
The C-130 from an Air National Guard wing based in Charlotte, N.C., was carrying a crew of six and fighting a 6.5-square-mile blaze in the Black Hills of South Dakota when it crashed Sunday, killing at least one crew member and injuring others.
The family of Lt. Col. Paul Mikeal of Mooresville, N.C., said they were told Monday that he had died in the crash. They said he was a 42-year-old married father of two and a veteran of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The crash and groundings cut the number of large air tankers fighting this summer's outbreak of wildfires by one-third. The military put the remaining seven C-130s on an "operational hold," keeping them on the ground indefinitely. That left 14 federally contracted heavy tankers available until investigators gain a better understanding of what caused the crash.
C-130 air tankers have crashed on firefighting duty before. In 2002, a privately owned civilian version of an older-model C-130 crashed near the Mono County village of Walker, killing three crew members. The plane broke up in flight and an investigation blamed fatigue cracks in the wings.
The crash, in part, prompted a review of the airworthiness of large U.S. air tankers and led ultimately to a greatly reduced fleet of large civilian tanker planes. The 44 planes in the fleet a decade ago has dwindled to nine being flown on U.S. Forest Service exclusive use contracts now.
Another aerial firefighting plane, the Lockheed P2V, has had some problems in recent months. One crashed in Utah, killing the two pilots, and another crash-landed in Nevada.
A military spokesman said he did not know when the grounded planes would resume firefighting flights.
[h=3]Other fires[/h]Colorado: The 28-square-mile Waldo Canyon Fire was 70 percent contained. The fire northwest of Colorado Springs has killed two people and destroyed nearly 350 homes.
Montana: The 290-square mile Ash Creek fire burning near Lame Deer jumped a state highway early Monday, triggering evacuations.
Wyoming: Three large fires continued to spread as crews faced erratic winds and explosive fuel conditions.
The deadly crash of a military cargo plane fighting a South Dakota wildfire forced officials to ground seven other Air Force air tankers, removing critical aircraft from the skies during one of the busiest and most destructive wildfire seasons ever to hit the West.
The C-130 from an Air National Guard wing based in Charlotte, N.C., was carrying a crew of six and fighting a 6.5-square-mile blaze in the Black Hills of South Dakota when it crashed Sunday, killing at least one crew member and injuring others.
The family of Lt. Col. Paul Mikeal of Mooresville, N.C., said they were told Monday that he had died in the crash. They said he was a 42-year-old married father of two and a veteran of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The crash and groundings cut the number of large air tankers fighting this summer's outbreak of wildfires by one-third. The military put the remaining seven C-130s on an "operational hold," keeping them on the ground indefinitely. That left 14 federally contracted heavy tankers available until investigators gain a better understanding of what caused the crash.
C-130 air tankers have crashed on firefighting duty before. In 2002, a privately owned civilian version of an older-model C-130 crashed near the Mono County village of Walker, killing three crew members. The plane broke up in flight and an investigation blamed fatigue cracks in the wings.
The crash, in part, prompted a review of the airworthiness of large U.S. air tankers and led ultimately to a greatly reduced fleet of large civilian tanker planes. The 44 planes in the fleet a decade ago has dwindled to nine being flown on U.S. Forest Service exclusive use contracts now.
Another aerial firefighting plane, the Lockheed P2V, has had some problems in recent months. One crashed in Utah, killing the two pilots, and another crash-landed in Nevada.
A military spokesman said he did not know when the grounded planes would resume firefighting flights.
[h=3]Other fires[/h]Colorado: The 28-square-mile Waldo Canyon Fire was 70 percent contained. The fire northwest of Colorado Springs has killed two people and destroyed nearly 350 homes.
Montana: The 290-square mile Ash Creek fire burning near Lame Deer jumped a state highway early Monday, triggering evacuations.
Wyoming: Three large fires continued to spread as crews faced erratic winds and explosive fuel conditions.