Iron 44: a co-pilot’s story
Bill Coultas still struggles to make sense of what happened. Coultas was the co-pilot on a

Bill Coultas still struggles to make sense of what happened.

Coultas was the co-pilot on a Carson Helicopters Sikorsky S-61N that crashed Aug. 5, 2008, while on a firefighting mission in California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Nine of the 13 aboard were killed, including PIC Roark Schwanenberg and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) check pilot Jim Ramage. During its third takeoff that day from Iron 44, a 6,000-foot-msl helispot, witnesses on the ground said the helicopter labored to gain altitude before sinking and clipping trees. At 7:41 p.m. the helicopter came to rest on its side and was immediately engulfed in flames. The wreckage burned until the next morning. Coultas survived with severe burns and other injuries.

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