Two military helicopters crashed Wednesday night in Kentucky - near Fort Campbell - killing many people.

Two military helicopters crashed

I would like to provide a summary of the training accident that occurred last night involving an aircraft from the 101st Airborne Division at approximately 10 p.m.

Two of our Blackhawk helicopters were involved in a crash during a planned training plate in Cadiz Kentucky that resulted in the death of all nine service members aboard.

Two military helicopters crashed Wednesday night in Kentucky - near Fort Campbell - killing many people. 

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear confirms that many more deaths are expected.

 Brendalyn Carpenter-Player, director of public affairs at Fort Campbell, told Fox News Digital that two HH60 Blackhawks from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) were conducting a training exercise at about 10 p.m. when they crashed.

Carpenter-Player said that during a routine training mission, the crew was flying two HH60 Black Hawk helicopters when the accident occurred. The condition of the crew members is unknown at this time.”  "The command is currently focused on caring for the military and their families."

Local radio station WKDZ informed that emergency personnel from several counties, including the East Golden Pond Fire Department, responded to the crash site between Bobby Light Road and Lancaster Road.  According to the report, as many as nine people may have been killed.

Two military helicopters crashed

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Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear confirmed the incident on Twitter, saying that several deaths are expected.

He wrote about the tough news of Fort Campbell, with early reports of a helicopter crash and fatalities expected. ky state police, Kentucky, and local officials are responding.  We will share more information as it becomes available.  “Please pray for all those affected.”

More information will be shared as it becomes available publicly. 

Officials from Fort Campbell, the Kentucky State Police, and the Kentucky Department of Emergency Management are on site.  The accident is under investigation.

WKDZ radio reported that someone about a half-mile away from the crash told the local station that they heard a "thump."

Several military helicopters crashed in Trigg County, Kentucky, on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. (WKDZ Radio, Cadiz KY)

It was not immediately clear what type of helicopter was involved in the accident.  Its cause is still unknown.

I would like to express our deepest sympathies to the families of our fallen soldiers. 

I would like to thank the First Responders from Tree County and the Kentucky State Police for the rapid and professional response and for their continued support.

The Army has deployed an aircraft safety team from Fort Rucker Alabama who will arrive later today and will immediately initiate an investigation to help us understand.

He says today is a tough and tragic day for Kentucky for the Fort Campbell and for the 101st.

The nine individuals we lost are children of God they will be missed by their families by their communities.

We know a lot about losses in Kentucky, especially these last three years. 

we're going to let them know that they are loved. They are special and if they'll allow us to carry some of their grief we'll do that for as long as we can. My faith teaches me that while the body is Mortal the soul is eternal and we will see them again.

Governor Bill Lee expressed his grief for this loss and his similar commitment to these families. 

I said here in Kentucky and I know in Tennessee, we love Fort Campbell, we love all the people that live here and that work here they are part of our community of who we are their loss.

Today is our loss and we're going to stand with both those who are here today and again we're going to make sure that these families know that they are loved and that they are not alone.

It was five and four and that is fairly typical.  We have a a safety team coming from Fort Rucker Alabama specializes in aircraft safety and specifically these investigations we hope to have them on the ground sometime later today and they're bringing a very diverse and talented team that will look at every possible contributing factor and I think in a short time, we will have a much better understanding of what may have contributed to this accident.

They were all based at Fort Campbell in the 101st Airborne Division.

They were a variant of the Blackhawk in this specific these specific aircraft were a medical evacuation aircraft.

When we get the team from Fort Rucker and they're able to pull some of the data out of the onboard computers that will have a better understanding of exactly what happened.

Survivals said despite our losses, we were Lucky because they were able to land uh in an open field across from a residential area.

They do 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.

We talked to some family members that are in the local area that we were able to contact fairly quickly but we also have some family members across the United States and a few outside of the United States so the process is ongoing.

We're doing everything. We can notify families as quickly as we can but I don't have a good estimation of when the final notifications will occur

There were no transports off the crash site. They are being monitored by radar radio communication.

We had other aircraft in the vicinity so we were notified via multiple means, one was by the tree County.

First Responders was one of the calls and then we also had aircraft that were able to quickly move to that location and stayed overhead for quite some time.

We do safety is integrated into this and uh for context when we do any training but especially Aviation training. They do very very detailed planning, very detailed rehearsals depending on the risk of the operation.

They're doing has different levels of approval from the command so we will always relook at our safety precautions and our measures but this was uh like all of this training Event. Safety is a primary focus for us.