Safety gear and training helped pilot survive crash of firefighting plane in B.C., report says

A Transportation Safety Board report says experience, recent training and safety equipment were key factors in a pilot surviving the crash of a firefighting plane south of Cranbrook in August 2022.The report says the pilot was alone in the Air Tractor AT-802A aircraft and had just finished his eighth water drop when the engine suddenly lost power, with no time to recover because of the low altitude.The report says the pilot couldn’t quickly diagnose the problem, so focused instead on the emergency landing, and managing the aircraft’s speed and rate of descent to ensure he would reach a landing site.