Bureau of Land Management Two veteran firefighters died in a plane crash Saturday while surveying the Cedar Basin fire in northwest Arizona. News Brief Severe weather may have played a role in the deaths of two veteran firefighters in a plane crash in northwest Arizona over the weekend. Fire pilot Matt Miller, 48, and air tactical group supervisor Jeff Piechura, 62, were surveying a new wildfire near the small town of Wikieup, Ariz. on Saturday when the accident happened. “There were storms in the area,” Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Dolores Garcia said. “That’s one of the factors investigators will be looking through when trying to determine what happened.”