Nine soldiers were killed after two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters crashed during a training incident in Kentucky Wednesday night, officials said Thursday morning.
The crash unfolded at around 10 p.m. local time (11 p.m. ET) during training in Trigg County, to the west of the Army base Fort Campbell, the base said in a statement early Thursday.
All nine were based at Fort Campbell in the 101st Airborne Division. Their identities were not made public, pending next of kin notification.
John Lubas, with the 101st Airborne Division, said there were five and four people in each of the helicopters, which he described as "fairly typical."
The crash unfolded as the two HH-60 Blackhawk medical evacuation aircraft were flying during the training exercise, officials said.
The Army has a deployed an aircraft safety team from Alabama who will arrive later Thursday and initiate an investigation into the cause of the crash, Lubas said. He said he is hopeful investigators will be able to pull data from on-board computers, noting there's something similar to a black box on board that can shed more light on the crash.
"This is a truly tragic loss for our families, our division and Fort Campbell and our number one priority is caring for the families and the soldiers without our combat aviation brigade," Lubas said.
The 101st Airborne Division, the only air assault division of the U.S. Army, had confirmed the helicopter accident and several casualties in a tweet early Thursday morning.
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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a news conference Thursday: "We know a lot about loss in Kentucky, especially these last few years. We're going to do what we always do. We're going to wrap our arms around these families."
Kentucky State Police were on the scene of the helicopter crash, along with military investigators and several other agencies, the department said in a news release early Thursday morning.
Speaking with journalists after the crash, state police said the incident unfolded in a partially wooded field area. They said a perimeter had been set up around the debris field.
Nicknamed the "Screaming Eagles," the 101st Airborne Division was activated on Aug. 16, 1942 and is based near Kentucky's border with Tennessee.