Grannus Aviation Boeing 737-300

Grannus Aviation was founded in 1987 by Canadian firefighter Jonathan Gagnon and former Irish Air Corps pilot Sean Byrne. The company started operations with helicopter logging services in Alaska and expanded into other services like power line construction and aerial survey. In 1995, Grannus purchased one C-130 aircraft and converted it for firefighting services. Following great success with this aircraft's operations, Grannus purchased 6 more over the course of the next decade and became one of the largest aerial firefighting contractors in the world. Grannus soon became the world's first operator of a 737 water bomber in 2017.

N619SW was the newest one by the time it entered the water bomber fleet in July of 2022. On February 6th of that year, the aircraft, marked as Tanker 619, was fighting wildfires in Western Australia. It had taken off from Busselton around noon and was conducting water bombing runs near Hopetoun. After returning to Busselton to take on more fire retardant twice, it once again returned to the site of the fire and descended twice. On the second descent, it hit a ridgeline while dropping retardant. The pilots attempted to pitch up, however due to insufficient thrust from the engines the aircraft struck terrain, breaking in two and sliding to a stop. A post crash fire consumed the aircraft. The two pilots escaped the aircraft through the cockpit windows and sustained minor injuries for which they were transferred to hospital for.