SYDNEY – The bodies of two United States firefighters killed battling Australian blazes were sent home on Wednesday in emotional ceremonies attended by officials and relatives.
Mourners gathered on the tarmac at Sydney Airport to see off Captain Ian H. McBeth, 44, of Great Falls, Montana, and First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, of Buckeye, Arizona, as their flag-draped caskets were lifted into aircraft for the journey home.
The men and a third American, flight engineer Rick A. DeMorgan Jr, 43, of Navarre, Florida, were killed in a plane crash in remote bushland while battling fires on Jan. 23, in one of the deadliest days of Australia’s most destructive bushfire season in a generation. (Reuters)
