Firefighters in Australia held a minute's silence on Friday for three U.S. ...
MELBOURNE/SYDNEY - Firefighters in Australia held a minute’s silence on Friday for three U.S. colleagues killed in a plane crash as investigators began scouring the accident site in remote bushland.
“We will forever be indebted to the enormous contribution and indeed the ultimate sacrifice that’s been paid as a result of these extraordinary individuals doing a remarkable job,” NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said at a farewell near Sydney airport for 32 U.S. firefighters who were returning home after weeks on duty on Australia.“We simply don’t know the circumstances pertaining to the accident at this stage,” Fitzsimmons said.
The company had grounded its other air tankers in Australia immediately after the crash on Thursday but said they would be returning to work “in the very near future”. The owner of the aircraft, Canadian aerial firefighting company Coulson Aviation, was sending a team to help with the investigation. They are due to arrive in Sydney on Saturday morning, Fitzsimmons said.
“Unfortunately, aircraft are one of the riskiest parts of wildland firefighting,” said Eric Kennedy, a disaster and emergency management expert at York University in California.
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