PERTH (AP) – Two pilots walked away with minor injuries after a Boeing 737 jet converted for firefighting crashed in Australia, officials said yesterday.
The twin-engine tanker owned by Canadian-based Coulson Aviation crashed in Fitzgerald River National Park in southern Western Australia state while fighting wildfires late on Monday.
Both pilots received only minor injuries even though the plane was engulfed in flames and smoke upon impact, Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said.
“It’s nothing short of miraculous that they were able to walk away from that plane,” Dawson told reporters.
The men, believed to be Canadian citizens, were released from a hospital yesterday, Australian Associated Press reported.
Three American aviators died when a C-130 Hercules tanker, a four-propeller plane also owned by Coulson Aviation, crashed in the east coast state of New South Wales while fighting wildfires in January 2020.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the nation’s crash investigator, said Monday’s crash was the first serious accident involving a Boeing 737 in Australia.
