i didn't mean to confuse with my talk of lookouts and safety officers. safety officers are the grey haired contingent that have been in most all the other positions and can scrub most any mission without question. they are not put in the role of lookout in most cases. a lookout in the context of a shot crew is placed in an observation position with specific orders on what to report, generally not a complex list. most typically, they are walking wounded and are there to report spot fires and any cookers ripping up below the crew. the KSA's of the two positions are vastly different. I am waiting to hear of the aircraft contingent in this tragedy... often aerial observers, often the operations chief, are eyes in the sky from their unique observation platforms. I spent a lot of time as a helicopter manager, and the fricking balls of the pilots who put their lives at risk to save people way outside of their job of bucketing water and being taxi driver never ceased to amaze me. Because they are mostly contract pilots, i think it is a shame that they cannot advance to positions of incident commanders or ops chiefs, but they are so valuable as pilots... i have seen them save the day and prevent literally hundreds of fatalities.
I would never question the pain of this kid in such a position of lookout. He could do his job perfectly and still lose his friends, without the interlocking help of others.
