DELANO, Calif. (AP) - Sheriff's officials have located the wreckage of a helicopter that went missing in Central California, and they say the female pilot is dead.

Kern County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ray Pruitt said the crash site was found at 9:50 a.m. on Wednesday, about four hours after the helicopter went missing.

Pruitt told the Bakersfield Californian that a sheriff's air unit spotted the wreckage in a vineyard with the help of the pilot of another helicopter who had seen the aircraft go down.

Authorities have not released the victim's name, but said she was in her 40's.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor has said the helicopter was returning to Delano Airport in Kern County when it disappeared. It was among three helicopters that were conducting frost control on a local field.

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