Staff reporter

The fire, likely sparked by a fault in the landing gear electrical system that ignited fuel from the cabin heater supply line, filled the cabin with smoke that caused the pilot to lose control and collide with the ground.

The Airwork-operated plane was forced to turn back to Darwin in November 2021 after the guarded cargo/depress switch – usually used to assist with removal of smoke in the main cargo deck during a smoke event – was left on by a maintenance engineer during pre-flight preparation, who had used it to try to cool the flight deck.

The pilot of the LongRanger, VH-ZMF, was killed when the helicopter crashed on 9 July, 2022, after colliding with the eagle just below the front left windscreen, which according to the ATSB resulted in the aircraft breaking up due to the pilot’s reaction.

The cause of the crash of the Coulson Aviation-operated 737 air tanker, which occurred during firefighting activities on 6 February, has not yet been identified in the ATSB’s preliminary report. The 737, callsign “Bomber 139”, was making a second drop after releasing three quarters of its retardant tank on the first go-around.

Keven Wilson’s contributions include animals from iconic state destinations such as Ningaloo Reef, the Margaret River Region, the Kimberley and Perth.

Contaminated pitot tubes were the likely culprit in an issue with a 737 freighter’s altimeter that forced it to return to Perth in June 2022, the ATSB has said.