Nine feared dead in wildfire helicopter crash

As many as eight firefighters and a pilot are presumed dead after a helicopter crashed just after picking up workers battling a blaze in a Northern California forest.

The helicopter had lifted off from a clearing in a remote, rugged region of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, said Jennifer Rabuck, spokeswoman for the US Forest Service.

The aircraft was carrying 11 firefighters and two crew members when it went down last night in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Four people - three firefighters and pilot - were flown to hospitals with severe burns, according to the Forest Service.

The Sikorsky S-61N chopper was destroyed by fire after crashing "under unknown circumstances," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. The NTSB, which is leading the investigation, was headed to the scene, about 215 miles north-west of Sacramento, while the Trinity County Sheriff's Department was leading the search for crash victims.

Firefighters who were waiting to be picked up helped rescue the injured after the helicopter crashed and caught fire, Rabuck said. About three dozen firefighters had to spend the night on the mountain because it became too dark for other helicopters to land, she said.

Nine people were still missing in the wreckage and presumed killed.

Recovery efforts have been complicated by the remote location and the ongoing wildfire in the forest, Rabuck said.

"It's difficult to access," she said. "It's very remote, very steep and heavily forested."

The firefighters had been working at the northern end of a fire burning on more than 27 square miles in the national forest, part of a larger complex of blazes that is mostly contained.

"We are praying for the swift recovery of all the victims, and our hearts go out to their loved ones," Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger said.

Ten of the firefighters, including the three in the hospital, were employed by firefighting contractor Grayback Forestry, according to Kelli Matthews, a spokesman for the Merlin, Oregon-based company. Grayback's tally showed that seven of its employees were unaccounted for, and the company does not know whether any firefighters from other companies or government agencies also were on board, Matthews said.

She said the company was notifying families of the missing firefighters and fielding calls from anxious relatives asking whether their family members were among the injured or dead.