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Two years, two crashes: Latest aerial-hunting accident leads to GF&P review
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FarkSTURGIS -- Looking back on those tense moments before the crash, Tony DeCino still doesn't know how things went so wrong so fast.
The airplane was running fine. The wind was light. A low pass over the brown pastures of the Cheyenne River breaks put him and gunner Dan Turgeon within 50 yards of the furry targets below.
And the 12-gauge shotgun bucked repeatedly against Turgeon's shoulder, firing clusters of heavy steel shot that sent two coyotes tumbling into the grass.
To that point, it was a perfect run.
"We'd killed both coyotes. We'd already pulled up, cleared the terrain and were in a descent to go back and check on the animals," DeCino said. "Over the course of a couple of seconds, things changed from perfectly fine to me trying to maneuver that airplane and us being in the dirt."
It was the first crash landing for DeCino, a seasoned 54-year-old pilot with 17 years experience as a flight instructor. He walked away with minor injuries and understandably nagging questions about its cause.
Turgeon, a state Game, Fish & Parks Department trapper from Wasta, walked away as well. But it would take 56 stitches to close a gash in his head.
And when the state-owned Christen A-1 Husky skidded into a sun-baked pasture in the rolling pastures near Wasta early on a sizzling July 30, it shook the foundations of the state's aerial-hunting program.
Aerial hunting -- which is banned by federal law except for approved government predator-control programs -- is an inherently dangerous game requiring airplanes to fly too low and too slow in order to put gunners within range of coyotes in the often-rough terrain below.
Because of DeCino's crash, the second in two years by a GF&P pilot during a coyote hunt, state officials are now beginning an internal review of the aerial-hunting program. They hope to determine whether aerial hunting by state pilots in state airplanes is worth the human risk and the economic cost, as well as whether different planes or different procedures could make it safer.
GF&P officials have suspended their aerial-hunting operation pending the outcome of the review. The one operational state airplane in the program, another Husky, is grounded in Pierre while officials decided whether to replace the fully insured Husky that was totaled in the July 30 crash.
"We have grounded the fleet, which is a fleet of one right now," GF&P spokesman Art Smith of Pierre said. "We have suspended our own aerial activities. We're not looking to blame anything. We're just looking to learn from it so we can proceed without this happening again."
The review will take at least two months and examine the safety and cost-benefit ratio of the GF&P aerial-hunting program. It could also become the focus of the criticism from some who say GF&P would be wise to contract with private pilots for aerial hunting, as well as others who oppose the practice altogether.
Wendy Keefover-Ring, a spokeswoman for the Boulder, Colo., wildlife advocacy group Sinapu, said the July 30 crash was typical of similar accidents that happen regularly in aerial-hunting operations across the nation. Although her focus is on federal airborne predator control, Keefover-Ring argues that South Dakota's control program suffers from the same problems: It is expensive, dangerous and, over the long haul, ineffective in improving the bottom line of livestock producers.
In fact, she said, killing coyotes by air might lead to more predation problems by disrupting coyote packs and killing some animals that don't feed on livestock.
Ranchers and states would be better off spending money on livestock practices that reduce predation, she said. Those include strobe lights and sirens, the use of electric fences and penning to help protect sheep during lambing and the use of dogs, burros and llamas to stay with sheep herds and protect them from coyotes.
"If we would just invest in this stuff up front, it would save money," Keefover-Ring said. "With coyotes, the more you kill, the more you get. They're very adaptable. It's a battle against mythology we're fighting, that killing predators helps these ranchers. But if you look at the big picture, it doesn't."
Most ranchers in western South Dakota tend to disagree, especially if they raise sheep. Although coyotes can and sometimes do kill calves, sheep and especially lambs are the most vulnerable to coyote attacks.
Smith, who coordinates GF&P's animal-damage control program, admitted that aerial hunting is a dicey way to kill coyotes. It is also expensive when figured on a per-coyote-killed basis. But it's effective, too, in ways that clearly benefit livestock producers, Smith said.
"It's extremely effective. It is the most effective -- minute for minute, hour for hour -- method of removing coyotes," he said. "If it didn't work, we wouldn't be doing it."
Last year, GF&P's aerial-hunting program was budgeted for $173,772, or about 10 percent of the agency's overall $1.7-million animal-damage control budget. The program is funded by a mix of money from GF&P, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and an assessment to counties based on livestock numbers.
The overall ADC program includes 19 GFP trappers who operate primarily on the ground but in some cases also act as gunners for state pilots. That's what Turgeon was doing July 30 when the Husky went down.
In full operation, GF&P runs two of its own planes and has two pilots on staff for aerial predator control, almost all of which is aimed at coyotes. In addition, a few private pilots contract with GF&P and with local predator-control districts to kill coyotes. A few other pilots -- typically ranchers -- have permits for limited aerial hunting in their areas.
In the past, GF&P had ADC airplanes and pilots stationed in Sturgis and Faith. But in 2005, Faith pilot Gary Hansen and trapper Mel Utter crashed during a coyote hunt near Lodgepole, a situation similar to the one involving DeCino and Turgeon. Utter escaped with minor injuries. Hansen suffered a concussion and lingering vision problems that have so far kept him from returning to the air.
The Faith airplane, an A-1 B Husky, has since been replaced with another Husky, which was then moved to a new station in Pierre. It remains grounded as GF&P begins its investigation.
One of the issues to be examined is whether the Husky planes are the right model for aerial hunting. Camp Crook rancher and permitted aerial hunter Clark Blake has doubts about that. Blake said he has never flown a Husky, but other pilots have told him they can be tricky to handle at low speeds and low altitudes.
That's what aerial hunting is all about.
"They're a good plane for a lot of things, but I don't think aerial hunting is one thing they are good for," Blake said. "They're heavy, and the controls are stiff on them, and you can't slow them down like you can a (Piper) Super Cub."
Blake said the crash involving DeCino might simply have been a case of a good pilot who was "in the wrong plane and got in a bad place."
DeCino, who joined GF&P five months ago as the animal-damage-control pilot in Sturgis, said he never noticed handling problems with the Husky at low altitudes and low speeds. The airplane had been professionally modified to improve its handling in those situations, he said. DeCino said he had regularly flown within 50 yards of the ground at speeds down near 50 mph to give his gunners good shots at coyotes below, with no handling problems.
"It always handled real well," he said
Blake said aerial hunting is effective and essential to providing coyote control that ranchers need. But GF&P might be able to save money and be more efficient by turning the responsibility over to local predator-control districts and contract pilots and their planes, Blake said.
"We work on a shoestring budget," he said. "I think they'd be better to fund the predator districts with no-strings-attached money, and let us do it."
That issue is one of many to be examined in the agency's review of the aerial hunting program, Smith said. But safety will be the central issue.
"We're going to look very hard at that," he said. "Our major emphasis is protecting our own resources, that being the staff of Game, Fish & Parks."
DeCino will be a big part of that review. And he's looking forward to the process. He still can't figure out what went wrong when he suddenly lost altitude and control of the airplane.
"Looking back, I don't know what I'd change or do different," he said. "The gunning run went great. The engine was running fine. The wind was no factor. I would have done just what we did. Many, many times I'd done the same thing."
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com
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