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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Nine feared dead in US air crash | Nine feared dead in US air crash |
| (about 12 hours later) | |
| Nine people are missing, feared dead, after a helicopter carrying firefighters crashed on its way to a forest fire in northern California. | |
| The helicopter went down on Tuesday night in a remote area about 35 miles (56km) north-west of Redding. | |
| The cause of the crash of the Sikorsky S-61 was not immediately known. | The cause of the crash of the Sikorsky S-61 was not immediately known. |
| The helicopter was carrying 11 firefighters and two flight crew. Three firefighters and pilot are being treated in hospital for burns. | |
| Two are said to be in critical condition and two serious. | Two are said to be in critical condition and two serious. |
| Firefighting contractor Grayback Forestry, which had employed the crew, named two of the injured men as Michael Brown, 20, and Jonathan Frohreich, 18. | |
| Safe return | |
| Ian Gregor, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the helicopter was destroyed in the crash. | Ian Gregor, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the helicopter was destroyed in the crash. |
| He added that the Trinity County Sheriff's Department was leading the search for victims. | |
| Janet Rabuck of the US Forest Service said that the area was very difficult to access. | |
| "It's very remote, very steep and heavily forested," she told the AP news agency. | |
| California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was praying for the safe return of the victims. | |
| "Our hearts go out to their loved ones," he added. | |
| The firefighters had been tackling a blaze that was covering 27 sq miles (70sq km) of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. | The firefighters had been tackling a blaze that was covering 27 sq miles (70sq km) of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. |
| They had been at the north side of a blaze burning across 27 sq miles (70 sq km) in the national forest, part of a series of fires which crews have mostly managed to contain. | |
| In June, a state of emergency was declared in California after fires mostly sparked by lightning in dry wilderness areas burnt more than 500 sq miles (1,400 sq km). | |
| A wildfire burning near Yosemite National Park in California destroyed 12 houses during July. | |
| Another firefighter died after being hit by a falling tree while tackling a blaze in the same forest in the same month. |