An aviation company has identified the three U.S. crew members who died battling Australia‘s bush fires, after their California-based air tanker crashed in a rugged part of the country’s coastal mountains. There was no immediate indication of what caused the crash, New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said Thursday. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the national air crash investigator, and state police will investigate the crash site, which firefighters described as an active fire site. Of the more than 70 bush and grass fires burning in New South Wales, fewer than half were contained, officials said. Coulson has been working fires in New South Wales for the last four or five years, Fitzsimmons said.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 23, 2020 23:48 UTC