Bodies of two pilots killed in Yosemite helicopter crash returned to families
Two pilots died in a helicopter crash while fighting the Dome Fire in Yosemite National Park; their bodies were returned to their families on Tuesday.
The bodies of two pilots killed in a helicopter crash at Yosemite National Park were returned to their families on Tuesday, a day after the aircraft went down while conducting water drops on a wildfire.
The two pilots were the only people on board the helicopter, which was operated by the contract aircraft company Precision. The crash occurred on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
One of the pilots was Greg King, who previously worked for the Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection and fought several wildland fires in that state before joining Precision, agency spokesperson Emery Johnson said. King's close relatives work at the agency and gave their permission to release his name. The identity of the second pilot has not yet been released.
The Super Puma helicopter had been using a water bucket to help suppress the fire when it went down near a lake, said Benjamin Cossel, a spokesperson with the Federal Complex Incident Management Team overseeing the firefighting response. Details about the circumstances of the crash were not immediately released.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.
Roughly 580 people are fighting the Dome Fire, which started on Sept. 15 near Wawona, California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. It is burning across about 4.7 square miles (12.3 square kilometers) and is about 15 percent contained.
The crash site was southeast of Ostrander Lake, roughly 7 miles (11 kilometers) northeast of Wawona and about 9 miles (14 kilometers) south of Yosemite's iconic El Capitan.
At least 14 people have died while helping with wildfires in the United States this year, the most since 2022, when 25 deaths were recorded, according to government reports.