BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER CRASHES IN ALA., KILLING TWO
A Black Hawk helicopter from the Tennessee National Guard crashed Wednesday in Alabama, killing two crew members, the Tennessee National Guard said.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of two Tennessee National Guardsmen, and our prayers are with their families during this heartbreaking tragedy,” Brig. Gen. Warner Ross, Tennessee’s Adjutant General, said in a statement. “We ask Tennesseans to join us in supporting their families during this time of unthinkable grief.”
According to Ross, two members of the Tennessee National Guard were killed during a flight-training mission. The helicopter crashed around 3 p.m. local time and caught fire.
The Madison County sheriff’s office said there were no injuries to anyone on the ground when the helicopter crashed.
“We have no survivors,” sheriff ’s Investigator Brent Patterson said. “We have a crime scene here. We have it taped off.”
The UH-60 helicopter, more widely known as a Black Hawk, crashed in the unincorporated community of Harvest along Alabama Highway 53, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in a statement.
The highway along which the crash happened passes through commercial areas that are bounded by subdivisions, forests and fields south of the state line with Tennessee.
The sheriff ’s office said in a statement that the crash was causing heavy traffic delays that were expected to last into today.
Harvest is just northwest of Huntsville, which is home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal. The once rural area has become increasingly suburban and is about 90 miles south of Nashville.
A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration referred questions to the military.