By FireRescue magazine staff



On April 25, 2009, three members of a private firefighting company were killed when their plane crashed in heavy fog en route to the 4 Mile Fire in New Mexico. The men—Tom Risk, 66, of Littleton, Colo.; Mike Flynn 59, of Alamogordo, N.M.; and Brian Buss, 32, of Alberton, Mont.—were employees of Missoula, Mont.-based Neptune Aviation. The plane, a twin-propeller P2V Neptune equipped for dropping fire retardant, was en route from Missoula, Mont., to Alamogordo, N.M., when it failed to clear a pass in the Oquirrh Mountains in Utah.

At the time of the crash, the 4 Mile Fire had burned approximately 19,000 acres and was threatening structures near Hope in Chaves County, N.M.

Read more about the incident here.

Tom Risk was the captain of T42 for Neptune Aviation. Tom had 42 years of aviation experience, 28 of those years in heavy airtankers. He joined Neptune Aviation in 2007. Mike Flynn was the first officer of T42 and had been with Neptune since 2004. Brian Buss joined the Neptune team in 2005 as a FAA-rated A&P mechanic. Brian was a lead electrician and had been a crew chief for the past two seasons.

To learn more about the men lost that day and contribute to memorial funds, visit the memorial page on the Neptune Aviation Web site.