Firefighting helicopter crashes near Yosemite, killing both pilots

Two helicopter pilots were killed when their aircraft crashed Sunday afternoon while conducting water drops on a wildfire at Yosemite National Park, officials say.

The pilots were the only people on board, and were employed by the contract aircraft company Precision. They were working with a wildland firefighting crew that specializes in using ropes to descend from helicopters to reach otherwise inaccessible terrain, known as helitack rappelling.

The Super Puma helicopter was using a water bucket to help suppress the fire when it went down southeast of Ostrander Lake, said Benjamin Cossel, a spokesperson with the Federal Complex Incident Management Team overseeing the firefighting response.

Details about the circumstances surrounding the crash were not immediately released. The crash will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

“It is with unimaginable sadness and broken hearts that we share the loss of two beloved members of our team,” Precision wrote in a social media post. “We are devastated by this loss and are struggling to find the words. We ask for privacy and compassion for their families and our team as we grieve this tremendous loss.”

The names of the pilots were not immediately released.

Roughly 580 people are fighting the Dome Fire, which started Sept. 15 near Wawona, California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. It’s burning on about 4.7 square miles (12.3 square kilometers) and is about 15% contained.

The lake near the crash site was roughly 9 miles (14 kilometers) south of Yosemite’s iconic El Capitan, and about 7 miles (11 kilometers) northeast of Wawona.

At least 14 people have died while helping with wildfires in the U.S. this year, the most since 2022 when 25 deaths were recorded, according to government reports.

In August, two helicopter pilots died while helping fight a fire in Utah, and a helicopter pilot in Colorado crashed into a reservoir.

Earlier this month, a firefighter suffered a medical emergency while fighting a wildfire in Oklahoma. Another firefighter in Oregon was hit by a tree that broke while he was cutting it in Mt. Hood National Forest.

Also in August, a wildfire officer was killed after a medical emergency during a wildfire in Minnesota; and a bulldozer operator got overrun by flames in Oregon.

In June, four firefighters got trapped in a fire in western Colorado. ___ Associated Press correspondent Matthew Brown contributed from Billings, Montana.