SALT LAKE CITY — Ryan Cutter, a firefighting helicopter pilot from Utah, was brought home to Utah with full firefighting honors after he died in a crash in Yosemite.
Cutter was also a former news pilot, and his death, along with that of fellow pilot Greg King, has been felt across the firefighting aviation community.
Mel Ceccanti, a firefighting helicopter pilot and vice president of Coulson, one of the major firefighting aviation firms, knew Cutter and had worked with King.
"We definitely knew who [Cutter] was and I had tried to recruit him several times," Ceccanti said.
Video below shows procession held for pilot Ryan Cutter:
"Both of these guys in this unfortunate accident had stellar reputations, which isn't a very easy thing to achieve, you know, we're a very tough group," Ceccanti added.
Ceccanti described the intense demands placed on pilots working around wildfires.
"You're trying to execute checklists. You're trying to fly in busy airspace," he explained. "You know, we're constantly looking for other aircraft. We've got 3 or 4 radios going off inside of our heads."
The deaths of Cutter and King are part of a devastating stretch for firefighters this season.
On June 20, four firefighters died just over the border in Colorado, and on August 7, two helicopter pilots died fighting the Widemouth II fire near Beaver.
Cutter was not working on a Utah fire when he died, but as a Utahn, he leaves behind Utah friends and family mourning his loss.
"There's multiple families coming to the end of this fire season with big holes that they're not going to be able to fill," Ceccanti said.
So far this year, the U.S. has lost at least 14 people fighting wildland fires.