Two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters crashed while on a training mission in Trigg County, Kentucky, killing all nine of the military men on board, an Army spokesman confirmed, calling it a “really devastating tragedy.”
According to Army officials, the 101st Airborne Division’s Black Hawk helicopters, one of which had five people on board and the other of which had four, were on a “regular training operation” when they crashed at around 10 p.m. on Wednesday. According to officials, the helicopters were “flying a multi-ship formation under night vision goggles.”
Brigadier General Lubas said the helicopters “have something very similar to the black boxes that we see on the larger aircraft, and we’re hopeful that that will provide quite a bit of information on what occurred.”
Trigg County, where the crash occurred, is about 25 miles northwest of Fort Campbell, a military installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
Kentucky State Police troopers found the wreckage in a location described as either a field or a semi-wooded area, said Sarah Burgess, a police spokesperson.
The names of the service members are secret. The families will soon be notified, according to officials.
At a news conference on Thursday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said, “We’re going to wrap our arms around these families and we’re going to be there with them.