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Firefighting pilot died in error-riddled mission

FORT CARSON - A pilot killed this spring while fighting a wildfire had the wrong type of plane and payload for the job and repeatedly warned officials that winds were too strong to operate safely.

The Denver Post first reported that the National Transportation Safety Board has concluded that 42-year-old pilot Gert Marais of Fort Benton, Mont., noted high winds but was urged by a dispatcher to head to a Fort Carson fire after initially refusing the mission.

Marais died on April 15 when his single-engine air tanker nose-dived into the ground.

A spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Area Fire Coordinator Center, which manages firefighting efforts in Colorado, initially brushed off requests for comment saying it was "not their fire." Pressed to explain the actions of the center's dispatchers, the spokesman said he would need time to review the NTSB report, which wasreleased Dec. 18 and reported on Tuesday in The Denver Post.

The NTSB report concluded that Marais, who flew a single-engine air tanker for an aviation company that contracted with the Department of Defense for firefighting, cited high winds several times.

A second pilot flying a companion plane told NTSB investigators that Marais did not want to head to Fort Carson if winds were stronger than 23 mph. Actual windspeed there was gusting to about 38 mph.

According to the NTSB report, dispatchers instead asked Marais and the second pilot to go to another fire that had forced the evacuation of the plains town of Ordway.

While Marais was on the way to the Ordway fire, the dispatcher returned, asking again for the planes to head to Fort Carson, where 9,000 acres eventually burned.

According to the NTSB report, two pilots decided that since they were already halfway to Fort Carson or Ordway "they would at least check out the flight conditions" at the Fort Carson wildfire. An incident commander at the fire asked Marais to drop fire retardant at one spot and when Marais warned of winds and turbulence, he was directed to another area.

As Marais approached an area to drop water and foam on the wildfire, he lost control and sent a series of mayday calls and the words "I'm going down." Marais slammed into the ground at a 45-degree-angle in winds investigators determined were about 34.5 mph.A U.S. Forest Service worker on the ground who was in contact with Marais by radio reported winds strong enough to blow his hard hat off his head.

Firefighters were unaware Marais had water and foam, not fire retardant. Based on that faulty assumption, Marais was ordered to complete the unnecessary task of dumping water on trees that were not on fire.The NTSB report indicates Marais' plane, a single-engine Air Tractor AT-602, did not have mechanical problems but was laden with crop dusting equipment that would create additional drag in windy conditions.The lead NTSB investigator on the case, Aaron Sauer, told 9NEWS the mission was a "pilot-in-command" situation, meaning Marais, an experienced pilot,could have disregarded his orders if he felt sufficiently unsafe."At any moment he could have said, 'I'm going home,'" said Sauer. "Why he elected to continue that flight, unfortunately we'll never know."Sauer said he believed agencies involved in the handling of the incident had since made procedural changes.9NEWS requested information on any such changes from all agencies involved: the dispatch center, Fort Carson, the Colorado Springs Fire Department, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, the US Forest Service, and the plane's owner Aero-Applicators of Sterling.None of them would comment on lessons learned or procedures changed in light of the crash.The dispatch center, Fort Carson, and the Colorado Springs Fire Department all said the report was under review.

Marais' widow, Esme, said Tuesday she had not seen the NTSB report but was aware her husband was occasionally asked to fly in high-wind environments.

The same day Marais died, two other volunteer firefighters working the Ordway fire were killed when their truck crashed where a fire-damaged bridge had collapsed./>

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