A Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma operating on the Dome Fire in California's Yosemite National Park crashed on September 20, killing both people aboard — the operator's entire crew assigned to the aircraft on that mission.

The US Federal Aviation Administration identified the helicopter type and put the crash time at approximately 14:55 local time during firefighting operations near Ostrander Lake, in Mariposa County. The aircraft was conducting water drops when it went down. The operator, Precision, confirmed that two members of its team died in the accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation, with FAA assistance. As of September 21, the victims' names had not been released pending notification of their families.

Recovery operations began the following day but faced immediate constraints. The crash site sits in remote terrain within the perimeter of an active wildfire, conditions that complicate access for investigators as well as recovery teams. Those same constraints shaped the firefighting operation itself: the National Park Service said in a September 18 update that steep terrain and limited ground access had made the response heavily dependent on aircraft, with helicopters ferrying multiple crews into remote areas and flying repeated water-drop cycles along their working lines.

The fire the helicopter was supporting remains far from controlled. The Dome Fire ignited on September 15 north of Wawona Dome and had burned 3,222 acres with 15% containment as of a CAL FIRE update posted shortly before noon on September 21. The National Park Service holds jurisdiction over the incident.

Precision CEO David Rath expressed sorrow over the deaths and asked for privacy for the families and the company's employees. The operator has not commented publicly on the circumstances of the crash, and no cause has been indicated at this stage.

The accident removes an airframe from a firefighting campaign that leans heavily on rotary-wing capacity. Aerial firefighting in the Sierra Nevada routinely depends on contract helicopters of the AS332's class — twin-engine, medium-lift machines capable of external water loads and crew insertion into confined sites. When one is lost, the remaining fleet must absorb its drop cycles or ground crews lose the aerial support that makes direct line construction feasible in terrain too steep for conventional access.

The AS332 Super Puma's record in firefighting and heavy-lift utility work spans decades, but the type also carries a documented history of investigation scrutiny in other operating sectors. Whether mechanical failure, operational factors, or the fire environment itself played a role in the Yosemite crash is a question for the NSB's inquiry, which will examine the wreckage, the aircraft's maintenance history, and the conditions on the fire line at the time of the water-drop mission.

For now, the investigation proceeds alongside the incident it grew out of. The Dome Fire continues to burn at 15% containment, the crash site remains within an active fire area, and the NTSB's ability to reach and document the wreckage will depend in part on the progress of the very firefighting operation that the lost helicopter was supporting.