Daughter of US firefighter killed in water-bombing plane crash speaks out
The daughter of a US firefighter killed in a tragic accident while fighting blazes in NSW has spoken of the person behind the “hero” portrayed in the media in the wake of tragedy.
Lt Col Ian McBeth was piloting a C-130 Hercules water bomber when it went down at Peak View northeast of Cooma, NSW on Thursday afternoon. Fellow Americans, first officer Paul Clyde Hudson and flight engineer Rick DeMorgan Jr, were also killed in the crash.
In an emotional interview with TV station KULR8, Ian McBeth’s daughter, Abi, shared memories of her fun-loving father who liked to play pranks.
She recounted one story where the family managed to get one back on him by tricking him into biting a bar of soap.
“Honestly, I just think about how much I miss my dad... it sucks,” she said.
“As a father he was super supporting, he always made sure my homework was done, he always wanted me to do the best that I possible could at school and have as many opportunities as I could.”
“I just want everybody to see how wonderful he was as a person,” she said.
Lt Col McBeth, 44, was a member of the Montana Air National Guard's 120th Airlift Wing and served on US military tours of Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I know everyone calls him a hero, but overall with his family and everything, I just want everyone to realise that all around he was just a wonderful person,” she said.
Following in her father’s footsteps
In the interview, Ms McBeth revealed that she is undertaking training to become a pilot and follow in her father’s footsteps.
“I hope everyone realises that anything can happen. Cherish the memories you have with the people you love, cause I never thought this could happen,” she said.
Representatives of Canadian company Coulson Aviation, which operated the C-130 involved in the crash, said Capt McBeth's love for his wife Bowdie and three children “was evident for anyone who spent time around him”.
Investigators spent the weekend combing through the wreckage of the crash site, which resulted in debris being strewn more than a kilometre in length.
The large aerial water tanker was engulfed by a fireball after crashing in the Snowy Mountains region last week, authorities said, making the crash investigation particularly difficult.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators on Sunday began examining data downloaded from the plane's cockpit voice recorder.
“It generally records the last two hours of a flight. It will record the pilot, co-pilot and the flight engineer's discussion in the cockpit,” ATSB boss Greg Hood said.
Investigators also used a drone to produce a three-dimensional map of the crash site.
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