Some changes to NSW Rural Fire Service practices in response to a fatal Black Summer aircraft crash are manual and not sustainable for a big fire season, its commissioner says.
The RFS was criticised by the aviation watchdog this week over the crash that killed Americans Ian McBeth, Paul Hudson and Rick DeMorgan after they dropped retardant on a fireground near Cooma on January 23, 2020.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said the large air tanker was sent to an area with unfavourable conditions, without aerial supervision, and the RFS relied on the pilot to assess the risk without providing all the necessary information.
RFS Commissioner Rob Rogers said all three of the report's recommendations will be implemented, with procedural changes already made for the upcoming fire season.
But those procedural changes are in a "manual format", he said.
"I don't think it will sustain us for a big fire season. We need to make sure we look at things from a systems-based, holistic way of doing business," Mr Rogers told a budget estimates hearing on Friday.
He denied the RFS had been slow to act to the crash, saying he had been aware of the draft recommendations through discussions with the ATSB Commissioner Angus Mitchell and others in the bureau.
"Until we saw the (final) recommendations ... it was very hard for us to lock something in," Mr Rogers said.
The ATSB found the RFS had limited policies and procedures for tankers and their supervision, and no procedures for deployment without supervision.
There was also no policy to manage task rejections or to communicate those internally or to other crews.
Before the Lockheed EC-130Q went to the fireground, other crews including those on a Boeing 737 had decided not to return to the area.
Mr Rogers said it was routine for pilots of the Americans' experience and qualification to fly without an observation crew, he said.
But he conceded the fire services hadn't done enough due diligence to validate the firefighting qualifications of the US crews.
