Two pilots were killed Thursday when their air tankers collided in mid-air as they were helping to fight a large wildfire in southern Nevada, federal officials said.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management suggested in a statement that the deceased were "contract pilots." "Recovery operations are currently underway and initial notifications are still being made," it said.
The planes had been dispatched to help fight the Bishop Fire, a 14,000-acre blaze burning on federal land roughly 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, according to Nevada Fire Information, a site with state and federal fire data.
A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said that neither aircraft was able to land.
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