Sydney, Australia — Three Americans died Thursday when a C-130 Hercules aerial water tanker crashed while battling wildfires in southern Australia, officials said. The plane came down in the Snowy Monaro region of Australia’s New South Wales state.
The plane was operated by a Canadian company, Coulson Aviation. Coulson’s Portland, Oregon branch said in a statement that one of its C-130 Lockheed large air tankers was lost after it left Richmond in New South Wales with retardant for a firebombing mission. It said the accident was “extensive” but had few other details. Coulson said it will be sending a team to the crash site.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed the deaths and crash in comments to reporters as Australia attempts to deal with an unprecedented fire season that has left a large swath of destruction.
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New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said, “The only thing I have from the field reports are that the plane came down, it’s crashed and there was a large fireball associated with that crash.” He said all three aboard were U.S. residents.
“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,” he said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
Berejiklian said there were more than 1,700 volunteers and personnel in the field, and five fires were being described as being at an “emergency warning” level.
Also Thursday, Canberra Airport closed because of nearby wildfires, and residents south of the Australian capital were told to seek shelter. Canberra is in New South Wales.
The Reuters news service said the crash brought the death toll from hundreds of wildfires in Australia to 32 since September. The blazes have also killed an estimated billion animals and destroyed some 2,500 homes in an area a-third the size of Germany.
