Nine Soldiers Die On Night Helicopter Training Mission

Nine soldiers died when the two helicopters they were traveling in crashed in Kentucky on Wednesday, said Brig. Gen. John Lubas, deputy commander of the 101st Airborne division. 

The soldiers were flying on a nighttime training mission, but the crash did not occur during the training exercise, Lubas said at a press briefing at Fort Campbell during a briefing on Thursday.

The helicopters were medical evacuation variants of the Black Hawk helicopter, and their crews consisted of a pilot, co-pilot, and medical crew, the general said.

The Army has yet to release the names of the deceased soldiers, as they are still in the process of informing their families. There were no medical transports away from the crash site, Lubas said. 

The Army has dispatched an aircraft safety team to understand what caused the crash, Lubas said. 

There was no emergency message from the crews before the crash, according to Lubas. The Army will examine data from the computers of the helicopters to figure out what went wrong, he added. 

The Army learned of the incident through nearby Army aircraft and first responders, Lubas said. A large number of first-responder teams rushed to the crash site, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, listing more than 10 separate police, fire, and medical emergency teams that went to the site.

The crash occurred in Trigg County, which is located in southeast Kentucky and near Fort Campbell, where the 101st Airborne division is based. 

Two Black Hawk pilots died in a training incident crash on Feb. 15 in Alabama when their helicopter “rapidly descended and impacted the ground,” according to a press release by the Tennessee National Guard.