Three dead after firefighting plane crashes in Australia

All three members of an aerial firefighting crew have died after a firefighting aircraft crashed on Saturday afternoon near Cloncurry, in north-west Queensland.

Report informs via foreign media that emergency services were called to the site of the crash near the Eloise Copper Mine, about 70 kilometres south of Cloncurry, just after 2:30pm.

Police from Mount Isa and a rescue helicopter were initially sent to the crash site, which police said was in difficult terrain.

Officers who attended the scene confirmed the three firefighters onboard the aircraft were dead, with a Queensland Ambulance Service spokesperson describing the crash as "unsurvivable".

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) issued a statement offering their deepest condolences to the families of those onboard, and confirming the aircraft had been contracted to support the Queensland bushfire response.

It was redeploying from Toowoomba to Mount Isa to conduct line scans, or infra-red mapping, when it crashed.

It is believed those onboard were mapping areas of recent bushfire activity in western Queensland and gathering vital terrain data for use during bushfire emergencies.