Two United States military helicopters collided during a training mission near a sprawling military base on the Kentucky-Tennessee border Wednesday night, the military said, causing casualties.
Two HH-60 Black Hawk attack helicopters collided during a routine training mission in Trigg County around 10 p.m., said Fort Campbell spokesman Nondis L. Thurman said. He said that an investigation into the accident is underway.
The helicopters belong to the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell and owned by the Army. Air Assault Wing only. section He said on Twitter The crash early Thursday morning resulted in multiple casualties, but no details were given. “Our focus now is on the soldiers and their families,” it said.
The governor of Kentucky was Andy Beshear said earlier on Twitter Casualties are expected, and the state’s police and emergency management agency responded to the crash.
No other details about the crash, including the number of people aboard the helicopters, were immediately available. A Black Hawk helicopter can carry an 11-man infantry squad, and the HH-60 model can be used for air strikes, medical evacuations and other purposes. According to the military.
In 2018, another type of US military helicopter, the HH-60G Pave Hawk, crashed in Iraq, killing seven soldiers. A Military inquiry It was later discovered that the helicopter struck a steel cable strung horizontally between two buildings as a result of pilot error.
The Weather in the Fort Campbell area Thursday morning was fair: calm winds, 10 mile visibility and a temperature of 39 degrees.
Fort Campbell covers 105,000 acres, including parts of Trigg and Christian counties in Kentucky, and Montgomery and Stewart counties in Tennessee. A dispatcher who answered the phone at the Trigg County Sheriff’s Office early Thursday morning referred questions about the crash to the trooper.
This is a growing story.