Authorities have confirmed three US-born crew members have died after an air tanker crashed in the Snowy Monaro region of NSW while fighting bushfires. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons confirmed in a press conference on Thursday that all three occupants on board the C-130 Hercules were US residents. “Our hearts are with all those that are suffering what is the loss of three remarkable, well respected crew that have invested so many decades of their life into firefighting and fire management and are professionals in the aviation sector and the aviation firefighting sector,” Fitzsimmons told reporters. “The military helped us in the deployment to try to locate the crash site and locate the wreckage and see if we could identify survivors. Unfortunately, all we’ve been able to do is locate the wreckage and the crash site and we have not been able to locate any survivors.”

Source: Huffington Post January 23, 2020 06:00 UTC