What happened
On the afternoon of the accident, a Lockheed P-2V Neptune (Tanker 11) was performing aerial firefighting duties under a contract with the US Forest Service. The aircraft, operated by Neptune Aviation Services, departed from the Cedar City, Utah, tanker base at 13:07. The mission involved delivering retardant to the White Rock fire, following a lead aircraft, a Beech Kingair 90, into a designated drop zone.
The drop zone was situated within a shallow valley measuring approximately 350 feet in depth and 0.4 miles in width. As the crew followed the lead plane through a right-hand turn on final approach, the aircraft's right wing tip struck the terrain. This impact occurred roughly 700 feet to the left of the lead aircraft's trajectory. The collision caused a sudden rightward yaw and a subsequent high-impact crash into the mountainside, 20 miles north of Modena, Utah. The force of the impact and the following post-crash fire destroyed the aircraft and resulted in two fatalities among the flight crew.
Prior to the accident, the crew had completed one successful drop earlier that day. The aircraft had been reloaded with retardant at the base but had not taken on additional fuel between the first and second missions. The crew, consisting of a pilot, copilot, and crew chief, had been operating together for three weeks, having recently transitioned from Reno to the Cedar City area.
Findings
- The aircraft was operating under visual meteorological conditions.
- The accident occurred during the maneuvering phase of a fire drop operation.
- The right wing tip of the aircraft struck terrain while the crew was following a lead aircraft through a turn.