Crews Salute as Pilot's Body Recovered from Crash

The body of an air tanker pilot killed in a crash while batting a fire near Yosemite National Park was recovered Wednesday and taken to a staging area where, wrapped in an American flag, the body was saluted by firefighting colleagues.

Cal Fire identified the pilot as Geoffrey Craig Hunt, 62, of San Jose. Battalion Chief Richard Lopez said Hunt served as a pilot for 13 years with DynCorp International, whose pilots are contracted by Cal Fire.

Hunt had successfully flown "hundreds and hundreds" of fires throughout his career and was stationed at Hollister Air Attack Base, Lopez said.

Hunt's body was transferred to state officials Wednesday just outside the park's entrance. The body, draped in a flag, was transferred from an emergency vehicle to a hearse while firefighters stood at attention and saluted.

Cal Fire director Ken Pimlott said contact with the pilot was lost at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Yosemite National Park search and rescue crews were sent to the last known location of the plane, and confirmed the tanker crash. The crash site was described as being a quarter of a mile long.

The body was found near the wreckage, and removed from the crash site around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday

All Cal Fire air tankers were grounded Wednesday. The agency normally does such a safety stand-down after a crash, State Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Alyssa Smith said.

It was not clear how long the planes would be out of service.

Yosemite officials say the blaze, named the Dog Rock fire, had grown to around 210 acres with no containment as of Wednesday morning.

The fire broke out about 3 p.m. Tuesday near Highway 140 in the El Portal area. The fire is located between the Yosemite View Lodge and the park’s Arch Rock entrance station, in hard-to-reach terrain near the Merced River. The fire is about 3 to 5 miles west of the entrance to the park, according to the National Park Service.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The community of Foresta, with about 60 homes, was evacuated

The fire has closed the Highway 140 entrance into Yosemite, forcing park visitors to use state Highways 41 and 120 to reach the valley.

Anna Grefer, a visitor from Germany who was making her to Yosemite through Highway 140 on Tuesday night, was turned back around by Highway Patrol officers. Grefer and her three friends had made reservations at Curry Village, but after calling the campsite around 10 p.m., she was told the power was down and no electricity was available for the heated tents they had reserved. "We didn't know there was a fire," Grefer said. "W’re not sure what we;re going to do yet…I guess we’ll head back and find somewhere else to spend the night." There is no estimate of how long the road closure will be in place, officials said.

Kirstie Cari, owner of El Portal Market, said the plane crashed right in front of her store. She was in the kitchen at the time and didn’t see it, but said witnesses told her the plane came tumbling over the ridge, cartwheeled and crashed right in front of a large rock wall.

Cari said the crash lit a second fire in front of the first fire and brought debris tumbling down into the road. “There were bunches of people having ice cream sitting outside and watching a fire” when the plane crashed, she said. “It was really sad. Little kids saw it.”

"It was crazy. I hope it never happens ever again."

Tuesday’s incident was the first Cal Fire air tanker crash since 2001, when two tankers collided above Mendocino County, killing both pilots. The last Cal Fire crash, which involved different aircraft, was reported in September 2006 in Tulare County. The pilot and a battalion chief were killed in that crash, Berlant confirmed.

Cal Fire has used the aircraft since the 1970s and last acquired new additions to the fleet in 2005. The planes were manufactured by Grumman Aerospace out of Bethpage, N.Y., according to Cal Fire’s website.

The Big Meadow fire burned more than 7,400 acres in late August and early September near Foresta. Nearly 5,000 acres burned near Old El Portal and Foresta in late July and early August, according to the park service.

Sun-Star staff writer Doane Yawger can be reached at (209) 385-2407 or [email protected]. Yosemite officials say the blaze, named the Dog Rock fire, had grown to around 210 acres with no containment as of Wednesday morning.