Two pilots were killed when their helicopter crashed carrying out water drops on a wildfire at Yosemite National Park.

The crew were working with firefighters using ropes to rappel from helicopters to reach inaccessible terrain.

The Super Puma was using a water bucket to help quell the fire when it went down southeast of Ostrander Lake.

The’Dome Fire has been raging for nearly a week in Mariposa County and was reported at 15% containment by Monday.

An investigation has been launched into the crash by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

The names of the pilots were not immediately released.

‘It is with unimaginable sadness and broken hearts that we share the loss of two beloved members of our team,’ Precision, the company the pilots were working for, wrote.

‘We are devastated by this loss and are struggling to find the words. We ask for privacy and compassion for their families and our team as we grieve this tremendous loss.’

Roughly 580 people are fighting the Dome Fire, which started September 15 near Wawona, California, according to the National Interagency Fire Centre.

It’s burning on about 4.7 square miles and is about 15% contained.

The lake near the crash site was roughly 9 miles south of Yosemite’s iconic El Capitan, and about 7 miles northeast of Wawona.

At least 14 people have died while helping with wildfires in the US this year, the most since 2022 when 25 deaths were recorded, according to government reports.

In August, two helicopter pilots died while helping fight a fire in Utah, and a helicopter pilot in Colorado crashed into a reservoir.

Earlier this month, a firefighter suffered a medical emergency while fighting a wildfire in Oklahoma.

Another firefighter in Oregon was hit by a tree that broke while he was cutting it in Mount Hood National Forest.

Also in August, a wildfire officer was killed after getting trapped while evacuating a burning building in a wildland fire in Oklahoma; a firefighter died following a medical emergency during a wildfire in Minnesota; and a bulldozer operator got overrun by flames in Oregon.

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