2023 Coulson Aviation Boeing 737 crash

On 6 February 2023, a Boeing 737-300 owned by Coulson Aviation and used as an air tanker crashed in the Fitzgerald River National Park in the Great Southern Region of Western Australia while fighting multiple fires. The two crew members aboard—both pilots—survived with minor injuries and were taken to the hospital. The aircraft was destroyed, and resulted in the first hull loss of a Boeing 737 in Australia.

Accident timeline

On 6 February 2023, at 12:08 pm, the aircraft involved took off from the Busselton Margaret River Airport on the first of three missions that day to respond to a fire near Hopetoun. En route to the fires, the aircraft climbed to 29000 feet, before descending to around 700 feet over the fire zone once. It returned to the same airport at 1:26 pm. After taking on a new retardant load, it took off at 1:50 pm for the second mission. The aircraft climbed out of the area and returned to its base at 3:08 pm, after descending once over the fire zone.

On its third mission, it took off at 3:32 pm. This time the air tanker descended two times over the fire zone, crashing at 4:14 pm while executing the second descent in the Fitzgerald River National Park.The aircraft had descended to 57 ft, at a speed of 110 kts, and were commencing the drop. The aircraft, running at about 30% power from the engines, began to climb and did so to 81 ft. At 107 kts, the captain increased power, however, the engines were slow to respond, and the stick shaker activated. The aircraft then stalled and collided with foliage, bounced, became airborne again, then crashed. After the aircraft had fully stopped moving, the co-pilot then started on the evacuation checklist, while the captain struggled to find an escape, as the cockpit door had buckled, and was unusable, and the right-side window unable to be opened by the co-pilot. The captain then noticed that there was a fire on the aircraft and both crew members subsequently escaped through the left-side window. Both crew members survived with minor injuries and were rescued by helicopter.