(LOS ANGELES) Three U.S. soldiers died and another was injured in the midair collision Thursday of two attack helicopters returning from training in Alaska, in the northwestern United States, the military said. American.
This accident is the second of its kind in less than a month.
Two soldiers were pronounced dead at the scene of two AH-64 Apache helicopters crashing near Healy, Alaska, and a third died en route to hospital, the US Army’s 11th Airborne Division said in a statement. communicated.
A fourth soldier, injured, was hospitalized.
The army did not indicate the cause of the accident into which an investigation is underway, she said. First aid arrived at the site, about 400 km north of Anchorage, shortly after the “mid-air collision” of the two helicopters from the base of Fort Wainwright.
“This is an incredible loss for the families of these soldiers, their comrades and the division,” said Division Commanding General Brian Eifler.
The American army did not identify the soldiers who were victims of the accident, specifying that their names would be published 24 hours after the information of their relatives.
In late March, nine soldiers died when two US Army Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a nighttime flying exercise in east-central Kentucky.
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 performing a training flight, near a highway and another highway. The reasons for the crash had not been communicated at the time.
In addition, five Marines died in June 2022 in the accident of their military aircraft, an MV-22B Osprey type aircraft participating in a training mission, near Glamis, 35 km from the Mexican border.
The US military has already experienced several accidents involving this model of Osprey aircraft, with vertical take-off, including one where four Marines were killed in March 2022 in Norway during a NATO exercise.
