Buckeye firefighter killed
A Buckeye man was among the three U.S. firefighters killed in a C-130 Hercules crash in Australia.
A Buckeye man was among the three U.S. firefighters killed in a plane crash while fighting to extinguish the wildfires ravaging the Australian wilderness on Thursday.
First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, was killed when the C-130 Hercules aerial water tanker he was riding in crashed.
Coulson Aviation, a private company based in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada, and has a presence in Oregon, confirmed Hudson’s death in a media release posted on Facebook Thursday evening.
The plane had departed from Richmond,
New South Wales, for a firebombing mission around the Snowy Monaro area.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The release said Hudson graduated from the Naval Academy in 1999 and served 20 years in the U.S. Marine Corps that included being a C-130 pilot.
He retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel and was awarded a number of decorations during his military career.
Hudson earned a master’s degree in business administration and information technology management from the Naval Postgraduate School, according to the release.
The release said he’s survived by his wife, Noreen.
Coulson Aviation said the crash also took the lives of 44-year-old Capt. Ian McBeth of Great Falls, Montana, and 43-year-old flight engineer Rick A. DeMorgan Jr. of Navarre, Florida.
“At Coulson Aviation, we have the incredible job of fighting fires around the world and we take pride in this responsibility,” the company said in the statement. “Right now, our hearts are with the crew’s family and friends and our Coulson Family suffering in the loss of these three remarkable and well-respected crewmembers.”
The company added that it would support the family of the three men but didn’t specify further.