An American aerial firefighter giving evidence at a coronial inquest into the deaths of his colleagues said he felt pressured by the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) to continue flying during the Black Summer bushfires.
Shawn Duggan had been fighting fires in Australia throughout the season and was piloting the only other plane in the air around the Snowy Mountains at the time of the crash on January 23, 2020, which killed aerial firefighters Ian McBeth, Paul Hudson and Rick De Morgan Junior.
