Officials have said that the work of the Army was slowed down early due to adverse weather conditions, but a special military investigative team is currently at the scene of a deadly crash involving two Black Hawk helicopters in southwestern Kentucky, where nine people were killed.
Dawn Grimes, a public information officer at Fort Campbell, stated that the team of approximately eight members from Fort Rucker, Alabama, reached the location at approximately 7 p.M. On Thursday evening. However, their progress has been hindered by inclement weather conditions, including rain and wind.
“The inquiry is ongoing but it has been obstructed by the weather,” Grimes stated on Friday.
The Army has not said if two Black Hawks from the 101st Airborne Division collided in the air before going to the ground, but the helicopters crashed in a field near a residential area. The crash occurred in Trigg County, Kentucky, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Fort Campbell, which is home to the Army post. The crash happened on Wednesday night during a medical evacuation training exercise, killing all nine soldiers aboard the two aircraft.
Military authorities stated that they anticipated disclosing the identities of the servicemen by Friday evening.
According to the Army officials, the pair of Black Hawks were flying in unison during a nocturnal training session. The pilots were utilizing the night-vision goggles. Brig. Gen. John Lubas, the deputy commander of the 101st Airborne, stated that the mishap took place while in flight and not during a medical evacuation exercise.
Officials said that Wednesday’s crash yielded some information about the cause, which investigators are analyzing. Black Hawk helicopters have similar black boxes to the ones found on passenger planes, which are used by investigators to analyze the performance of aircraft in flight crashes.
Four soldiers from the special Marine forces and the Louisiana National Guard Army were killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed into the water off the coast of Florida in dense fog. This incident, which occurred in March 2015, was the deadliest training crash for the Army’s Fort Rucker Combat Readiness Center, according to spokesperson Jimmie Cummings.
In 2001, 21 personnel from the Air and Army Guard were killed in Georgia when a fixed-wing aircraft, the Sherpa C-23, crashed. This incident was the second deadliest in international and U.S. Forces history. In 1982, a Chinook crash in Germany resulted in the death of 46 individuals, making it the deadliest training aircraft incident in the Army. The crash involving two helicopters colliding mid-air during a training mission resulted in the death of 17 troops, making it the third highest number of fatalities. Additionally, the Black Hawk crash in 1988 at Fort Campbell was also mentioned as the deadliest non-combat incident, according to Cummings.
In 1996, Fort Campbell also experienced a multi-aircraft crash. The crash occurred when two Blackhawks had their propellers clipped, resulting in the death of five soldiers. Additionally, in 2018, Fort Campbell witnessed another tragic aviation accident during a training session, where an Apache helicopter crashed, killing two soldiers on board.
The Black Hawk helicopter is a critical workhorse for the U.S. Army, used in missions such as search and rescue, medical evacuations, transport, and security. These helicopters are well-known to many people due to the 2001 movie “Black Hawk Down,” which is about a battle in Somalia in 1993.