Pilot dies fighting Australian bushfires
The pilot is the second fatality in the ongoing bushfire disaster.
A pilot trying to fight one of several raging Australian wildfires died when his plane crashed, in the second fatality resulting from the fires that have ripped through the nation’s most populous state over the past week.
The 43-year-old man was the only person on board and was trying to drop water onto a blaze in extremely rugged terrain near Ulladulla, south of Sydney, when his plane went down Thursday morning, Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.
“He’s a husband with young children and we’re all acutely aware that there’s a family suffering ... because their dad hasn’t come home,” an emotional Fitzsimmons said, pausing to compose himself. “We’re also feeling for the firefighting community.”
More than 100 wildfires have destroyed more than 200 homes in New South Wales state this month, and a resident died of a heart attack while trying to defend his home last week. Sixty-one fires were burning Thursday, with 23 out of control, though cooler weather had decreased the fire threat and residents who evacuated had returned to their homes.
Officials were trying to access the crash site, but the steep terrain and wind was making it difficult, New South Wales police Superintendent Joe Cassar said.
“We are trying to recover the pilot from the scene but are being challenged by weather conditions and nearby fire,” Cassar told reporters in Nowra, a city near Ulladulla.