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Coulson Aviation is an aviation company headquartered in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada. The company's fleet specialises in air tankers used for aerial firefighting.^[1] It operates in Canada, the United States, Australia and Chile.^[2]

The company operates both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. The company's operations included helicopter logging, forest fire suppression, power-line construction, airliner passenger, transport, and other industrial heavy lift operations. Coulson Aviation (USA) Inc. is a subsidiary of Coulson Aircrane Ltd. Coulson Aviation contract rotary and fixed-wing aircraft to Australia and the US from Canada.^[3]

Active fleet

Coulson Aviation currently has 21 aircraft (excluding business jets) active as of July 20, 2024

Fixed wing aircraft

Fire bombers

Lockheed C-130 Hercules

Bomber 130 (C130H)
Bomber 131 (EC130Q) (N131CG)
Bomber 132 (C130H) (N132CG)
Bomber 133 (C130H) (N140CG)
Bomber 136 (C130H) (N136CG)
Bomber 138 (C130H) (N382CG)

Boeing 737

Bomber 136 (737-3H4) (N137CG)
Bomber 210 (737-3H4) (N138CG) - also known as 'Marie Bashir'.^[4] This aircraft was purchased in 2019 by the Australian New South Wales Rural Fire Service^[5] and is operated under contract by Coulson.

Command and control aircraft

Cessna Citation

Coulson also operates a further two Citations in Australia on behalf of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service:^[5]

Fire Scan 200 (VH-VJT) (Cessna 560 Citation V)
Fire Scan 201 (VH-VJO) (Cessna 560 Citation V)

Rotary wing aircraft

Coulson Aviation currently has 17 Rotary wing aircraft in service (as of July 20, 2024

CH-47 Chinook

HeliTanker 47 (N47CU) (CH-47D Chinook)
HeliTanker 55 (N43CU) (CH-47D Chinook)

HeliTak 211 (N49CU) (CH-47D Chinook)

N49CU (CH-47D Chinook)

N40CU (CH-47D Chinook)

Bell 412

Coulson also operates two helicopters in Australia on behalf of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service:^[6]

HeliTak 203 (VH-VJD) (Bell 412EP)
HeliTak 204 (VH-VJF) (Bell 412EP)

Previous fleet

Coulson Aviation previously operated two Martin Mars flying boats, the Philippine Mars and Hawaii Mars.

Past deployments

On 5 December 2022 Coulson aviation sent one of its C130Hs to Busselton Regional Airport as part of a 4-year firefighting contract. The aircraft did weekly equipment tests.^[7]

Incidents

In 2020, a Coulson Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft crashed while aerial firefighting for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service during Australia's black summer bushfires, resulting in the deaths of three American firefighters.^[8] The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) determined the cause of the collision was likely due to the dangerous weather conditions, low-level wind shear and an increased tailwind, leading to the aircraft stalling while releasing fire retardant foam at a low height and airspeed and colliding with terrain.

In 2023, a Boeing 737-300 aircraft known as Bomber 139 and operated by Coulson Aviation crashed in the Fitzgerald River National Park in the Great Southern Region of Western Australia while fighting multiple fires.^[9] The cause of the crash was the pilots dumping fire retardant below the minimum altitude. The final report was published by the ATSB on 6th of November 2024.