Wildfire Aviation Crash Outside Capitan, New Mexico.
A long time veteran of the industry and beloved pilot perished.
Early Saturday morning, the National Transportation Safety Board issued an announcement that an Air Tractor AT-802A had gone down near Capitan, New Mexico. This aircraft was not attached to the Salt or South Fork fires in that area.
Piloted by longtime fire aviation veteran and second-generation pilot Ronald "Van" Patton, the Air Tractor AT-802A was in transit West when the incident occurred. I was informed a drone was used in the search effort to find the crash site. Inclement weather was in the area when the accident occurred.
Coastal Air Strike put out the following memorial statement this morning:
The Coastal Air Strike team is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our tanker pilot and dear friend, Ronald "Van" Patton, while on a ferry flight Friday, June 21st.
Van was a 2nd generation pilot, choosing the fixed wing path, earning his pilot's certificate as a teenager. He was also a respected aircraft mechanic and held an inspector authorization (IA) for decades, building and maintaining various aircraft. One early build as a teenager was his dad's RV-4, which - as his friends say - he used to terrorize the skies of the Oregon coast.
He worked at Boeing in Portland building control assemblies for a few years and gave that up to fly ag planes. He settled in Keizer, OR with Industrial Aviation Services where he flew for 30 years, as well as managed for the last five. His ag colleagues say at times he was the glue that held it all together. He then transitioned into aerial firefighting, earning Coastal's Rookie of the Year award in 2023. Most recently, Van was checked out in the single engine scooper aircraft, which was a longstanding dream for him.
He was able to utilize those skills this spring as he was put to work in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. During Van's years of flight, he had accumulated more than 14,000 total flight hours, and over 13,000 of those were low level flight operations.
Van will be greatly missed by many. His big-hearted and extremely kind personality, along with his ability to make others smile, will never be forgotten. On top of his admirable aviation career, he was a committed family man, always putting his wife and son as his 1st priority.
Following the accident, the NTSB put out a statement saying that an investigation would follow.
Prayers to the family, to Ronald’s coworkers, and to the wildfire aviation world. While the dangers of the job are well known by those who do it, these types of incidents are never easy.
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