9 Dead After Two US Military Helicopters Crash in Kentucky

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Facts

• On Thursday, US officials announced that nine unnamed Army soldiers based at Fort Campbell in the 101st Airborne Division were killed when two helicopters crashed Wednesday night. Brig. Gen. John Lubas said there were five and four people in each of the helicopters, which he described as 'fairly typical.'¹
• The crash occurred during a routine training mission involving US army HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters in Trigg county, Ky., just 60 miles north of Nashville, Tennessee.²
• According to Lubas, the Army doesn't yet know what caused the crash and there were no radio signals calling for help before it occurred. The helicopters were equipped with flight recorders that officials hope will shed light on the matter.³
• The two 101st flight crews were flying after dark and using night vision goggles, according to a spokesperson. The helicopters reportedly landed in an open field across from a residential area.⁴
• During the crash, the weather at Fort Campbell was calm winds, a visibility of 10 miles, and a temperature of 39 degrees.³
• This comes after two Tennessee National Guard pilots were killed when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Alabama during a training exercise last month. According to the US Army Combat Readiness Center, there has been an average of five deaths annually in aviation training accidents since 2018.⁵

Sources: ¹NBC, ²Guardian, ³New York Times, ⁴Wall Street Journal and ⁵CNN.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by CBS. Most people likely don't know, but since 2010 there have been thousands of military accidents on American soil, several of which were fatal. These often occur due to very avoidable mistakes, such as inadequate equipment inspections and poor training and supervision of troops. The families of these soldiers understand the risks their sons and daughters take in combat, but needless deaths while training within American borders are particularly tragic.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Task & purpose. Despite periodic news cycles on the matter, military training deaths have always, unfortunately, been an inevitable reality of war preparation. Even as the government spends more on new equipment and training, tragedies do occur in this dangerous field. Working to prevent any deaths is obviously a continuing goal of the government, but aircraft crashes don't mean the military is ill-equipped or underprepared.