Mt Baldy Fire Air Tanker Crash Fatality 1984

On July 13, 1984, a Grumman S-2F Tracker air tanker registered N451DF crashed while flying loaded from Ukiah Air Attack Base to a fire on Mt Baldy near Clearlake, Lake County, California. The pilot, Theodore "Ted" Bell, Jr., was killed in the accident. The fire was in the protection area of the California Department of Forestry (CDF, now CAL FIRE), and Bell flew for a company contracted to provide air tanker services for CDF. The temperature at Ukiah at the time was about 110 degrees Fahrenheit and the loaded air tanker was noted to have taken more of the runway than usual to lift. He took off at 1607. High density altitude may have been a factor in the crash. Enroute to the fire, Bell's S-2 hit the side of Cow Mountain, a few miles east of Ukiah. The impacted ignited a small wildfire that local resources suppressed.