Two U.S. Army helicopters crash during a training flight in Alaska: three soldiers die in the crash
Sylvie Claire / April 29, 2023
Three U.S. soldiers died and another was injured in a mid-air collision Thursday between two attack helicopters returning from training in Alaska in the northwestern United States, the U.S. military said.
The crash was the second of its kind in less than a month.
Two soldiers were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash of two AH-64 Apache helicopters near Healy, Alaska, and a third died en route to the hospital, the U.S. Army's 11th Airborne Division said in a statement.
A fourth soldier, injured, was hospitalized.
The army did not indicate the cause of the accident, which is under investigation, it said. First responders arrived at the site, about 400 km north of Anchorage, shortly after the "mid-air collision" of the two helicopters from the Fort Wainwright base.
"This is an incredible loss for the families of these soldiers, their comrades and the division," commented division commanding general Brian Eifler.
The U.S. Army did not identify the soldiers who died in the crash, saying their names would be released 24 hours after their loved ones were notified.
At the end of March, nine soldiers died when two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a night flying exercise in Kentucky (east central).
A Black Hawk helicopter also crashed in mid-February in Alabama (South), killing the two occupants on board.
The aircraft, belonging to the Tennessee Air National Guard, was also on a training flight, near a highway and another road. The reasons for the crash were not disclosed at the time.
In addition, five Marines died in June 2022 when their military aircraft, an MV-22B Osprey aircraft on a training mission, crashed near Glamis, 35 km from the Mexican border.
The U.S. military has already experienced several accidents involving this model of Osprey vertical takeoff aircraft, including one in which four Marines were killed in March 2022 in Norway during a Nato exercise