Bodies of U.S. firefighters retrieved from Australian air crash site

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The bodies of three U.S. firefighters who died in a plane crash earlier this week in Australia's remote bushland while battling a fierce wildfire have been recovered, the police said on Saturday as investigators started probe into the accident.

A spokeswoman for Australia's New South Wales state police confirmed the recovery to Reuters in an e-mail.

"They have been taken for a post mortem examination to confirm ID," the spokeswoman said.

Coulson Aviation, the private Canadian firm that employed the trio, named them as U.S. military veterans Captain Ian H. McBeth, 44, of Great Falls, Montana, First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, of Buckeye, Arizona, and Flight Engineer Rick DeMorgan Jr., 43, of Navarre, Florida.

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