NJFFSA16
06-20-2005, 01:06 AM
By TOM GARDNER
Associated Press Writer
MINDEN, Nev. (AP) - Three years after their firefighting
airtanker went down while battling a wildland blaze near the center
of a small Sierra town, the three-man crew was remembered Friday
with a solemn ceremony at the airport where they were based.
"Just as the 2005 fire season is beginning, we recall that they
gave their all in 2002," said Russ Bird, aviation manager for the
Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center at the Minden-Tahoe
airport.
"We need to remember what the risks are: The forest is
important, but life is always the most important to us."
On June 17, 2002, pilot Steve Wass, copilot Craig Labare and
engineer Michael Harlow died when C-130A air tanker crashed while
dropping retardant on the fire that threatened to engulf Walker,
Calif., a strip of homes, curiosity shops and mom-and-pop motels
straddling U.S. 395 90 miles south of Reno.
A Reno television crew caught the moment on videotape when the
plane's wings broke off and the tanker crashed in a fiery
explosion.
Mike Lynn, who flew with Wass and had flown in the doomed plane
before the crash, attended Friday's observation.
"We're a very small family, closely knit. Things like this mean
a lot to us," he said.
The crew's courage already has been noted by memorials near the
site of the crash at Walker and in a park in Minden.
The new plaque hung at the Minden airport on Friday as members
of Wass' family looked on listed the names of the men on the plane,
followed by the phrase, "Go West."
Lynn said pilots of the airtankers see going west - toward the
setting sun - as heading home after a long day.
Shortly after Wass died, a memorial service was held at Douglas
High School in Minden.
During that service, fellow Minden pilot Brian Bruns performed a
flyover in an airtanker that symbolically veered off to the west.
Bruns was among three members of a P-3B air tanker crew who died in
April in a training flight crash near Chico, Calif.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Rest in peace!
Associated Press Writer
MINDEN, Nev. (AP) - Three years after their firefighting
airtanker went down while battling a wildland blaze near the center
of a small Sierra town, the three-man crew was remembered Friday
with a solemn ceremony at the airport where they were based.
"Just as the 2005 fire season is beginning, we recall that they
gave their all in 2002," said Russ Bird, aviation manager for the
Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center at the Minden-Tahoe
airport.
"We need to remember what the risks are: The forest is
important, but life is always the most important to us."
On June 17, 2002, pilot Steve Wass, copilot Craig Labare and
engineer Michael Harlow died when C-130A air tanker crashed while
dropping retardant on the fire that threatened to engulf Walker,
Calif., a strip of homes, curiosity shops and mom-and-pop motels
straddling U.S. 395 90 miles south of Reno.
A Reno television crew caught the moment on videotape when the
plane's wings broke off and the tanker crashed in a fiery
explosion.
Mike Lynn, who flew with Wass and had flown in the doomed plane
before the crash, attended Friday's observation.
"We're a very small family, closely knit. Things like this mean
a lot to us," he said.
The crew's courage already has been noted by memorials near the
site of the crash at Walker and in a park in Minden.
The new plaque hung at the Minden airport on Friday as members
of Wass' family looked on listed the names of the men on the plane,
followed by the phrase, "Go West."
Lynn said pilots of the airtankers see going west - toward the
setting sun - as heading home after a long day.
Shortly after Wass died, a memorial service was held at Douglas
High School in Minden.
During that service, fellow Minden pilot Brian Bruns performed a
flyover in an airtanker that symbolically veered off to the west.
Bruns was among three members of a P-3B air tanker crew who died in
April in a training flight crash near Chico, Calif.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Rest in peace!