{"id":34470,"date":"2026-08-09T11:55:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T06:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34470"},"modified":"2026-08-09T11:55:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T06:55:42","slug":"utah-helicopter-crash-pilots-dead-battling-wildfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34470","title":{"rendered":"Utah helicopter crash pilots dead battling wildfire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F08%2Fnewspress-collage-2qup7tglq-1786257381083.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261786243011\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Two <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/07\/us-news\/helicopter-battling-utah-wildfire-crashes-with-no-word-on-2-people-aboard\/\">helicopter pilots who crashed<\/a> while they were fighting a wildfire in Utah are dead, officials confirmed Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The pilots were killed when their Sikorsky Skycrane\u00a0helicopter went down\u00a0Friday morning, according to the Sevier County Sheriff.<\/p>\n<p>The helicopter was among those fighting a fire in the Fishlake National Forest.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>A Sikorsky Skycrane works to refill while battling a fire in Fillmore, Utah, on Aug. 4, 2026. Days before crashing. <span class=\"credit\">Scott G Winterton\/The Deseret News via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The crash ignited a new fire that spread to connect with the existing blaze, which has now scorched nearly 174 square miles.<\/p>\n<p>Officials did not identify the pilots but said they were employed by Helicopter Transport Services, which was contracted by the US Forest Service.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Initially officials said they were unable to reach the crash site because of the fire.<\/p>\n<p>Then, on Saturday, crews were able to enter the area and confirmed the deaths, according to the Sevier County sheriff and coroner.<\/p>\n<p>The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate once its team can examine the wreckage. It will likely take the NTSB a year or more to determine the cause.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The Widemouth 2 wildfire burning near Richfield, Utah, on Aug. 7, 2026. <span class=\"credit\">U.S. Forest Service\/Fishlake National Fores via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Numerous fires also were burning in other parts of the West, including one that closed part of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.<\/p>\n<p>The National Park Service shut down access to the Sunrise and White River areas of the park after a new wildfire burned less than a third of a square mile.<\/p>\n<p>Firefighters were working to gain control of it.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The crash ignited a new fire that spread to connect with the existing blaze, which has now scorched nearly 174 square miles. <span class=\"credit\">Scott G Winterton\/The Deseret News via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Larger\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/02\/us-news\/spokane-washington-wildfire-torches-homes-turns-neighborhood-into-hellscape-in-terrifying-video\/\">fires near Spokane, Washington,<\/a> have now burned more than 15.63 square miles, but firefighters constructed more than 75 miles of containment line to help control\u00a0those flames.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile in Oregon, hot and dry conditions helped an uncontrolled fire spread beyond 30 square miles.<\/p>\n<p>Firefighters were still trying to identify the best places to set up containment lines around the\u00a0Wrights Spring fire\u00a0as they mourned the death of 47-year-old Jason Ensign, who was killed while\u00a0operating a bulldozer\u00a0for a timber company.<\/p>\n<p>The blaze grew rapidly Thursday and cut off Ensign\u2019s escape route.<\/p>\n<p>And north of the border in British Columbia, more than 20,000 people\u00a0had to evacuate\u00a0ahead of another fast-moving wildfire.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two helicopter pilots who crashed while they were fighting a wildfire in Utah are dead, officials confirmed Saturday. The pilots were killed when their Sikorsky Skycrane\u00a0helicopter went down\u00a0Friday morning, according to the Sevier County Sheriff. The helicopter was among those fighting a fire in the Fishlake National Forest. A Sikorsky Skycrane works to refill while&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/newspress-collage-2qup7tglq-1786257381083.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1786243011&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}