New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian expresses condolences to families of the firefighters on board

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

Three American firefighters have died after a waterbombing air tanker crashed while fighting fires in New South Wales.

The NSW Rural Fire Service said in a statement that “contact had been lost with a Large Air Tanker which was working in the Snowy Monaro area” on Thursday afternoon.

The premier of NSW, Gladys Berejiklian, confirmed that three people had died, and expressed condolences to the families of the firefighters on board.

RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons later confirmed that all three were Americans embedded along with firefighters from other countries in the RFS teams.

Australia fires live: Canberra airport closed, reports of air tanker crash in NSW bushfires – latest updates Read more

The plane was a C-130 Hercules, owned and operated by Coulson Aviation, a Canadian company that the RFS contracts to conduct waterbombing in Australia.

“Tragically this afternoon, shortly before 1.30pm, we lost contact with one of our large air tankers – a C-130 water bombing aeroplane that we’ve been using here in New South Wales for some years now, under contract,” Fitzsimmons said.

“It’s impacted heavily with the ground and initial reports are that there was a large fireball associated with the impact of the plane as it hit the ground.

“There is no indication at this stage of what has caused the accident [and] it would serve us all well not to speculate,” he said.

“It is still an active fireground and it will take some time with the use of ground crews and a number of aerial surveillance platforms to try to locate the wreckage.”

Publicly available flight tracking sites Flightradar24 and Flightaware showed a Lockheed C-130 Hercules plane flying over Namadgi National park near Canberra at 1.30pm.

The plane then abruptly stopped and disappeared from tracking.

Fitzsimmons said other air tankers, including those interstate, had been grounded to make sure there were no “systemic” faults.

“As a precaution, Coulsons have grounded their large air tankers this afternoon, and, indeed, as a mark of respect and as welfare for the rest of their crews operating large air tankers here in New South Wales and interstate in Victoria.”

“Having spoken personally with the owner and operator of Coulsons … the owners will be on the first available flight out of Canada they can get on. They’re expected to be here in Sydney in Australia in the next 24 hours.”

The RFS owns at least two C-130 Hercules planes as waterbombers – named Zeus and Thor – and leases others. Site Flightaware listed the C-130 as tail number N134CG.

According to tracking sites, the plane left the RAAF Base in Richmond at 12.05pm, and was due to return by 2pm.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it was aware of “a serious incident” involving a Large Air Tanker and is currently gathering further information”.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority confirmed that the plane was a Hercules C-130 owned by Coulson Aviation.

Canberra airport was closed on Thursday as large grass fires burned through the ACT and southern NSW.