A tourist from Taiwan hiking a trail in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park was killed when he was struck in the head by a falling dead tree.
The incident on Monday afternoon remained under investigation,
according to a National Park Service statement. Park officials said the 36-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was part of a group hiking along the Fairy Falls trail, north of Old Faithful and west of Grand Loop Road.
The Associated Press reported that the fallen tree was part of numerous trees killed during the park's 1988 wildfires. Rangers reported windy conditions in the area at the time of the accident.
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"The man left the trail and ascended a nearby tree-covered slope in an apparent attempt to get a better view of Grand Prismatic Spring, when a lodgepole pine tree fell and struck him in the head," according to the park service statement.
"Other visitors who witnessed the incident made their way back to the trailhead, where they encountered two park maintenance employees working in the area, who relayed the information to Yellowstone law enforcement rangers," the statement continued.
Park rangers said in its statement that a helicopter transported the man to a medical facility where emergency personnel could not revive him and he was declared dead.
Monday's death was the second injury incident in the park this month. A week before, a 54-year-old pilot flying a single-engine airplane crashed in Yellowstone near Gardiner, Montana, the park service reported.
In that incident June 2, the small plane crash north of the Gardiner Cemetery and west of Yellowstone Trail inside Yellowstone National Park, near the publicly-owned Gardiner Airport. Emergency personnel removed the man from the wrecked plane and transferred to Bozeman Deaconess Hospital by helicopter.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the accident.
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