9 missing and feared dead in chopper crash at CA wildfire
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Excerpts from the The Sacramento Bee at 6:59 PM EDT:
The helicopter had picked up a group of firefighters about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, said Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesman.
The helicopter was completely burned, he said.
The cause of the crash is still uncertain, said Bob Madden, spokesman for Carson Helicopter Services of Grants Pass, Oregon, owner of the aircraft.
“We’ve heard both – they were taking off to take people back to base camp, or they were dropping someone off.”
The helicopter caught on fire after hitting the ground, he added.
“Apparently the aircraft came down and impacted the terrain and then rolled down the mountain and it was after continuing a roll down the mountain and the aircraft took fire,” he added.
The 30-year-old helicopter, a Sikorsky S-61, was originally made in Connecticut and upgraded three years ago, Madden said, adding that it’s not military surplus and has been used in fire fighting for 10 years.
Sharon Heywood, forest supervisor for Shasta-Trinity National Forest, said “We have confirmation that there are fatalities,” but declined to say how many people were killed.
The four other people on board are recovering from their injuries at area hospitals.
The pilot is at the UC Davis Regional Burn Center and is listed in serious condition. Two other people also are at the burn center, one in critical condition, the other in serious condition, officials said.
One person remains at Mercy Medical Center in Redding and is in serious but stable condition.
Forest Service officials said that the people on board the aircraft were contracted firefighters with Greyback Forestry, headquartered in Merlin, Ore.
The helicopter is owned by Carson Helicopters out of Grants Pass, Ore., officials said.
According to a Federal Aviation Administration report, the Sikorsky S-61 was transporting firefighters 38 miles from Redding when it crashed under “unknown circumstances.”
The helicopter was assigned to the Iron Complex in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and was at the north end of the Buckhorn Fire, about 15 miles northwest of Junction City, when it crashed, a U. S. Forest Service spokesman said.
Forest Service officials first learned of the accident at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday. They have not confirmed the number of fire personnel aboard the helicopter when it went down in rugged, remote terrain. It was being used as a fire transport helicopter, Forest Service spokesman Mike Odle said.
From the AP at 5:19 PM EDT:
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Nine people are missing and feared dead in the crash of a helicopter that was carrying firefighters over a Northern California forest, officials said Wednesday.
The helicopter was carrying 11 firefighters and two crew members when it went down Tuesday night in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Four people were taken to hospitals with severe burns, including two in critical condition, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The Sikorsky S-61 chopper was destroyed by fire after crashing “under unknown circumstances” in a remote mountain location, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. FAA and NTSB investigators were headed to the scene, about 215 miles northwest of Sacramento.
The nine were presumably killed in the fire that destroyed the helicopter, Gregor said.
Two of the injured were flown in critical condition to the University of California, Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Forest Service spokesman Mike Odle said Wednesday. The other two were taken to Mercy Medical Center in Redding in serious condition, he said.
The firefighters had been working at the northern end of a fire burning on more than 27 square miles in the national forest, part of a larger complex of blazes that is mostly contained.
The helicopter was owned and operated by Carson Helicopters Inc., whose firefighting operations are based in Grants Pass, Ore. All 12 of the company’s helicopters are being used for firefighting in Oregon and California, said Bob Madden, Carson’s director of corporate affairs.
The helicopter’s two co-pilots were Carson employees, Madden said; one was hospitalized and the other was among the missing.
Before Tuesday’s crash, three firefighters had been killed while on duty in California this year, including one firefighter also assigned to battle the Shasta-Trinity blazes who was killed last month by a falling tree.
On July 2, a volunteer firefighter in Mendocino County died of a heart attack on the fire line. Another firefighter was killed July 26 in when he was burned while scouting a fire.
From the AP at 3:53PM EDT:
JUNCTION CITY, Calif. (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration says nine people are missing and feared dead in the crash of a helicopter carrying firefighters in Northern California.
FAA spokesman Ian Gregor says the helicopter was carrying 11 firefighters and two crew members when it went down Tuesday night. Four people have been taken to a hospital with severe burns. Two are in critical condition.
Gregor says the Sikorsky S-61 chopper was destroyed by fire after crashing in a remote mountain location in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
