Two helicopter pilots killed while battling Yosemite fires

Two helicopter pilots died while fighting a fire in Yosemite national park on Sunday afternoon.

The pilots were conducting water drops over the Dome fire, which had burned more than 3,000 acres since it ignited last week, when their helicopter crashed around 3pm, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The pilots were employed by the aerospace company Precision and 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 helicopter 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 on 15 September near Wawona, California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. It’s burning on about 4.7 sq miles (12.3 sq km) and is about 15% contained. The lake near the crash site was roughly 9 miles (14.5km) south of Yosemite’s iconic El Capitan, and about 7 miles (11.3km) northeast of Wawona.

Water-dropping helicopters have been key to fighting the blaze, which has spread across rugged terrain.

At least 14 people have died while helping with wildfires in the US this year, the most since 2022 when 25 deaths were recorded, according to government reports. Three firefighters died battling Colorado’s Knowles fire, and an additional member of that crew succumbed to injuries weeks afterwards. The incident was the most deadly entrapment in 13 years.

The job has always carried inherent risks,but this year has been especially dangerous. The Trump administration has increased pressure on firefighting forces, amid a critical shortage of federal firefighters.

Gabrielle Canon contributed reporting