Pilots killed in Utah crash praised for their service as U.S. firefighter death toll rises 

More Utah forests are burning than ever before. Here’s why that matters

Porterville Mayor Greg Meister mourned Elliott’s death in a Monday statement, calling him a hero.

“Miles traveled across our nation fighting wildland fires, putting the lives and safety of others before his own,” Meister said. “It was a life of service and selflessness, and ultimately, he gave his life while protecting others.”

An obituary for Andersen, 64, said his death “came while he was doing work that demanded courage without spectacle: flying toward a dangerous fire to protect people he did not know — and who might never have known the risks he accepted on their behalf,” the post reads. 

The tragedy underscored the dangers of a furious wildfire season that has stretched the nation’s firefighting resources, fanned by scorching summer temperatures and dismal snowpack in the West. And it follows earlier deaths of other firefighters this summer, including that of a man operating a dozer Thursday when the Wrights Spring Fire in Oregon suddenly shifted and blocked his escape route. 

Also calling attention to firefighter safety were the deaths of three members of a “helitack” crew trapped in a burnover incident on the Utah-Colorado border in June, while a fourth later died of the burn injuries. A surviving crew member was hospitalized. 

August isn’t letting up. Whipped by strong winds Monday afternoon, the Rocky Canyon Fire in Morgan and Summit counties forced evacuations of the town of Henefer and has torched more than 13,000 acres, with no containment. 

The Sevier sheriff’s office and a coalition of firefighting agencies noted in a statement on Sunday that an “abnormally dry and warm winter has led to an extremely difficult fire season” and said Friday’s tragedy is another reminder of the difficult work that wildland firefighters and their support crews are asked to carry out. 

“Fatalities such as this land heavily on the minds and hearts of our agencies and the wildland fire community as a whole,” they said. 

The two pilots were flying a Sikorsky Skycrane, a helicopter with powerful engines, the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office said Monday. The pair worked for a company that contracts with the U.S. Forest Service called Helicopter Transport Services. 

The circumstances of the crash have not been made public. The National Safety Transportation Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating. 

Both men were recalled Monday as fixtures of their separate aviation communities who introduced aspiring young pilots to flight and were deeply devoted to their families.

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“Miles was the kind of friend who would do anything for you, without hesitation or expectation,” said Russell Isom, Porterville’s transportation director, in a statement. Isom recalled how his friend could get a burst of inspiration in the middle of the night and get to work using a computer-programmed manufacturing tool to bring it to life. 

“He was always thinking, creating, and excited about what he could do next,” Isom said. Elliott was also a devoted father of one son and was engaged to be married, Porterville officials said Monday.

Andersen’s obituary, posted on social media by his brother Ric Andersen, described him as “a veteran Army aviator and accomplished civilian helicopter pilot whose 40-year career carried him from the NATO frontier to oil fields in Africa and wildfires around the world.” He was also the chief pilot of the helicopter that crashed Friday, according to that remembrance. 

News reports on Monday also noted Andersen’s great pride in his nieces, nephews, and their young children. 

“For those who loved him, there is profound sorrow in the retirement he had prepared for but did not get to enjoy,” his obituary states. “There is also great pride in the life he did live — one defined by service, mastery of his craft, generosity toward those who followed him and an enduring willingness to place himself in harm’s way so that others might be safer.”

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