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Plane CrashesVersion 6

Two Crew Killed in Helicopter Crash While Fighting Utah Wildfire

A Sikorsky Skycrane working the Wide-Mouth Two Fire in Fishlake National Forest crashed on the morning of Friday, Aug. 7, 2026; the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 10, 2026, 8:19 p.m. ET
crew members were killed when a helicopter crashed on the morning of Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, while crews were battling the Wide-Mouth Fire in Fishlake National Forest in Utah, according to reporting by Fox 9, 41NBC, Fox 13 Seattle, Fox 10 Phoenix, Fox 7 Austin and Fox 5 Atlanta. The outlets reported both people aboard died — a total of fatalities, both crew. They reported that officials initially could not reach the crash site because of the fire, and that crews entered on Saturday and confirmed the deaths. Officials did not identify the pilots. The aircraft was a operated by , which the outlets reported was contracted by the U.S. Forest Service. The specific aircraft involved has not been identified. Registry records list 10 aircraft under this operator; that is a description of the operator's fleet and not an identification of the aircraft in this crash. According to the outlets, the helicopter was among those fighting the fire in the forest, and the crash ignited a new fire that spread to connect with the existing blaze, which has burned nearly 174 square miles. The cause has not been determined. The outlets reported that the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate once its team can examine the wreckage, and that the NTSB will likely take a year or more to determine the cause.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Terrain elevation
11,056 ft
Nearest aerodrome
15 miles N of Boulder Airstrip (US-1642)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 611 Aug 2026, 00:19current

    Named the fire as the Wide-Mouth Two Fire in the lead and added 41NBC to the attribution.

  2. Version 510 Aug 2026, 02:12

    Added Fox 7 Austin to the attribution list for the casualty reporting.

  3. Version 410 Aug 2026, 02:08

    Updated operator fleet figure to 10 registry aircraft and removed the type-match reference; added Fox 5 Atlanta as a reporting source and dropped the developing-event line.

  4. Version 310 Aug 2026, 02:03

    Corrected operator fleet count to 13 registry aircraft and noted the single type match, added Fox 13 Seattle attribution, and added that the NTSB is expected to take a year or more to determine the cause.

  5. Version 210 Aug 2026, 01:57

    Added second-outlet corroboration (Fox 10 Phoenix), noted officials did not identify the pilots, and stated the aircraft has not been identified with operator fleet size from registry records.

  6. Version 110 Aug 2026, 01:52

    First published.

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