Two US Army helicopters crashed Thursday in Alaska while returning from a training flight, killing three soldiers and injuring a fourth.
Two of the soldiers died in the crash near Healy, Alaska, and a third died on the way to the hospital in Fairbanks. A fourth soldier was being treated in a hospital for his injuries, the army said in a statement.
The names of the dead were not released until the next of kin could be notified, the military said. Each AH-64 Apache helicopter was carrying two people at the time of the crash, John Pennell, a spokesman for the US military in Alaska, said Thursday.
The helicopters belonged to the 1st Attack Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment at Fort Wainwright, based near Fairbanks. “This is an incredible loss to the families of these soldiers, their fellow soldiers, and to the division,” said Maj. Maj. Brian Eifler, commanding general of the 11th Airborne Division, in the Army statement. “Our hearts and prayers go out to their families, friends, and loved ones, and we are deploying all of the Army’s resources to support them.”
3 dead after 2 Army helicopters crash returning from training flight in Alaska https://t.co/jUx8FJPdn0 pic.twitter.com/7ysODbQ1K6
— New York Post (@nypost) April 28, 2023
The army said the cause of the crash is under investigation and more details will be released when they become available. The crash is the second involving military helicopters in Alaska this year.
In February, two soldiers were injured when an Apache helicopter overturned after taking off from Talkeetna. The plane was one of the four trips in the Elmentorf-Richardson joint base ad anchorage of Fort Wainwright.
In March, nine soldiers were killed when two medical evacuation helicopters of the United States Army Black Hawk. Uu. They crashed during a routine night training exercise about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north -est of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Healy is located approximately 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Denali National Park and Preserve, or about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Anchorage.
Healy is a community of approximately 1,000 located on Parks Highway in interior Alaska. It’s a popular place for people to spend the night while visiting the nearby park, which is home to Denali, the tallest mountain on the continent.
Healy is also famous for being the closest town to the old bus which had been abandoned in the countryside and was made famous by the book ‘Into the Wild’ and the film of the same name. The bus was removed and brought to Fairbanks in 2020.
