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Old 19th August 2003 | 03:04
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Cyclic Hotline
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Joined: Oct 1999
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From: Beyond the black stump!
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Sad news indeed. According to this story, excerpted below, it was actually a Bell 204B, which matches the operators listed aircraft fleet.


Firefighting chopper crashes

Pilot dies aboard Alberta firm's helicopter

By DAN PALMER, EDMONTON SUN


One person is dead after a helicopter operated by an Alberta company crashed at a landing pad yesterday as it was fighting a raging British Columbia forest fire, say authorities.

"There was only one person on board, and that person is deceased," said Capt. James Pierotti of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria.

Pierotti didn't know the gender of the person on board.

Gemini Helicopters - which operated the chopper and has a head office in Grande Prairie, 456 km northwest of Edmonton - wouldn't comment about who was on board or if anyone was deceased.

Gemini Helicopters spokesman David Steer told The Sun that the Bell 204 helicopter crashed around 11:15 a.m. B.C. time at a heli-pad near Bonaparte Lake, about 80 km southeast of 100 Mile House.

The crash happened as the helicopter was preparing to get a bucket of water, said Steer.

The chopper was fighting the Bonaparte Lake fire, north of Kamloops.
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