A New South Wales Rural Fire Service aviation radio operator added information to a second version of his radio log following a fatal large air tanker crash in the Snowy Mountains during the state's Black Summer bushfires, a coronial inquest has heard.
Kevin Harder was communicating with large air tankers from the Cooma Fire Control Centre on January 23, 2020 in the hours before one crashed, killing three American aerial firefighters on board.
His initial log suggests he did tell one of the pilots, Shawn Duggan, who was flying a 737 near Adaminaby, that there were no other aircraft flying in the area but did not provide a reason why.
There was nothing in the log that suggested the pilot on board the C-130 which crashed, was given this information either.
On Wednesday, Mr Harder said he had photocopied his handwritten radio log, and the original was kept at the air base.
"Initially I knew there was going to be a problem due to the crash; I photocopied the documents in the afternoon, then kept a copy myself," he said.
He then typed up the log, and added an additional line about informing Mr Duggan that the reason no aircraft were in the air was due to poor conditions.
"I did convey that to 137, most certainly," he said.
He told the inquest he had later realised it was an important piece of information and should have been logged.
In evidence given on Tuesday, Mr Duggan denied that conversation took place, and said had he known all other aircraft were grounded, he likely would not have taken the job.
Mr Harder denied altering the document to paint himself in a more favourable light during the investigation into the crash.
He provided the second version of the log to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for their investigation.
Pilots accuse RFS of poor communication
Another American pilot, Robert Coward, told the inquest on Wednesday that he refused a job in the Adaminaby area on the day of the crash, as he was not comfortable with the forecast conditions — information that Mr Duggan said was never passed onto him but should have been.
Mr Coward was on a three-month deployment to Australia during the 2019-20 bushfire season to operate a bird dog plane, which is tasked with assisting the large air tankers in their operations.
Both pilots said communication between them and the RFS was poor.
"It was a whole underground communication process going on between the Americans to find out who was in charge of what on an incident," Mr Coward told the inquest.
He reiterated evidence given by Mr Duggan on Tuesday and said he felt pressured by the RFS to fly during the season.
“The large air tanker program is relatively new to Australia; I think there’s always this little-sticker shock to the cost and I believe once the contractor contracts for these things, they want to use them rather than pay for them and have them sit," he said.
"Sometimes we’re a little bit of a billboard, advertising what we’re doing; when people see it flying people think they’re getting their money’s worth.
"Especially on that day on the 23rd, I kept hearing 'they really want you to go, they really want you to go'; you don’t ever get a name but it's coming from the state air desk," he said.
In opening submissions, Mr Casseldon noted the RFS has already made a number of changes to communication procedures.
The inquest has also heard there was no direct pressure on pilots from their employers to take jobs and that decisions about whether it is safe to fly rests with them.
