Nine firefighters were believed dead after a helicopter crashed in northern California Tuesday night, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The helicopter, carrying 13 people, crashed in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest after taking off from a remote site about 56 km northwest of Redding, in northern California, the FAA said.
Nine of those on board were missing and feared dead, while four on board were critically burned, according to Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesman.
The pilot and two others were taken to a nearby hospital in Sacramento, capital of California where two of them were listed in critical condition and the third was listed in serious condition in the intensive care unit, said Carole Gan, a hospital spokeswoman.
"All of them have burns," Gan said, declining to provide additional information on their injuries or identities.
The crash may have occurred during the landing phase of returning fire fighters to a base camp, authorities said.
The firefighters had been working at the north end of a 70-square-kilometer fire burning in the Shasta-Trinity forest, part of a larger complex of blazes that total 350 square kilometers.
Source:Xinhua
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