RFS confirms that David Black died fighting fires when his plane crashed and caused new blaze A pilot is dead after his light plane crashed in Victoria's rugged alpine region. A PILOT killed while helping the Rural Fire Service with bushfire control on the NSW South Coast today has been named as David Black. The 43-year-old man, from Trangie in the state's west, died when his fixed-wing aircraft crashed in rugged terrain near Ulladulla. Mr Black, who has three young children, is the owner of Rebel Agricultural, the company which had been contracted to help the RFS with water bombing activities. His family has been notified by police, along with colleagues at his work. Pilot David Black lost his life today when his firefighting aircraft crashed near Ulladulla. RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has described the loss of a pilot fighting fires near Ulladulla as a "tragedy." "We've suffered a huge tragedy on one of our firegrounds today," RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said. It's a tragedy for the fire fighting community but first and foremost it's a tragedy for this man's family. He's a husband with young children and we're all acutely aware that there's a family suffering today because their dad didn't come home. Victorian pilot loses life in Mt Hotham light plane crash Superintendent Joe Cassart, the Shoalhaven local area commander, told a press conference at the Nowra police station that the crash had caused "significant damage to the aircraft," which was fighting fires in the Wirritin Mountains at the time of the accident. "This sort of collision resulted in significant damage to the aircraft but we haven't been given specifics," Supt Cassar said. The rugged area where the waterbomber crashed. The pilot was a long way from his home in Trangie. He said it was "far too dangerous" to send any personnel down there to retrieve the pilot at the moment. "It has taken us some time to get the rescue personnel winched down and of course the priority of this response was to ensure the safety of the pilot," he said. One of the big challenge in regards to that task was the winds in the area at that time. But their efforts were certainly successful in getting a member of the ambulance rescue squad down there. It was at that point that they confirmed that the male was in fact deceased, they then retracted the ambulance personnel officer and (were) certainly not in a position to go down there because of the impeding weather conditions. At the moment we are continuing to try to get the helicopters in there to try to retrieve the body from the site and we will continue to do so until a point where we are able to get into that location. As soon as the conditions are in our favour we'll retrieve that pilot. The waterbomber was hitting fires in the Budawang National Park when the plane went down. Police have contacted the man's family but said they weren't able to disclose any more details of his identity until a coronial report was done. Supt Cassar was unable to confirm whether the pilot was a contractor or a Rural Fire Service (RFS) volunteer. The plane's crash caused a fire near the larger fire, which was put out. The Rural Fire Service aircraft crashed while fighting fires this morning near Charlie's Forest Road near Braidwood. The Milton Ulladulla Times reported that police had arrived at the crash site and are about to establish a crime scene in remote bushland in the Budawang National Park, 40km west of Ulladulla. The ambulance rescue team initially had to abort attempts to winch a paramedic down due to high winds. It was reported that the plane is an 802 waterbomber being used by the Rural Fire Service and that a wing snapped off before the crash. "This was a fixed wing aircraft contracted to the NSW rural fire service," RFS spokesman Ben Shepherd told reporters. We're talking with the police, the family of the aircraft operator and also colleagues working in that general area.