At least two individuals were killed in a military helicopter accident Wednesday afternoon along Highway 53 near Huntsville, Alabama.
According to the Madison County Sheriff's Office, the flaming collision occurred at about 3 p.m. near the intersection of Burwell Road and Alabama State Highway 53 near Huntsville.
Black Hawk Helicopter Crashes in Alabama
Don Webster of Huntsville Emergency Medical Services reports that the helicopter caught fire upon impact. Webster said that both occupants of the helicopter perished in the horrific collision.
Fox News Digital confirmed that no vehicles or pedestrians were wounded due to the collision.
According to the Madison County Sheriff's Office, the aircraft was a Black Hawk. Authorities have not disclosed what caused the deadly collision. Due to the highway shutdown, the MCSO recommended that drivers find other routes.
Redstone Arsenal, a United States Army installation, acknowledged the issue on Facebook. Dale Strong, a representative from Alabama, tweeted his sympathies to the families of those killed in the tragedy.
Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army station and census-designated place in Madison County next to Huntsville. The posting's leaders issued a Facebook comment indicating they were aware of the occurrence.
The fatal collision is expected to cause "significant delays," and police have encouraged vehicles to find other routes due to a highway closure. According to MCSO, Alabama Highway 53, south to Jeff Road and between Douglas Road and Alabama 53, remain restricted to traffic. The Army is the principal user of the Black Hawk helicopter, with around 1,600 to 1,700 various models in service.
The Navy possesses around 750 Black Hawk versions, primarily SH-60 or MH-60 Seahawks, while the Air Force has approximately 100 HH-60 Pave Hawks. Per Daily Mail, the Coast Guard possesses around forty HH-65 Pave Hawks, while the Marine Corps has eight VH-60 White Hawks.
The UH-60 helicopter, often known as a Black Hawk, crashed near the unincorporated village of Harvest along Alabama Highway 53, according to a statement from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
The route where the accident occurred travels through business districts north of Huntsville, bordered by subdivisions, woodlands, and fields south of the Tennessee state line. The sheriff's office stated in a statement that significant traffic delays are likely to persist until Thursday due to the accident, according to We Are Iowa.
Previous Similar Incidents
Harvest is just northwest of Huntsville, where NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the US Army's Redstone Arsenal are located. The previously rural area is now predominantly suburban and is located around 90 miles south of Nashville.
A Federal Aviation Administration official relayed queries to the military. Local news stations displayed images of massive black smoke plumes from the collision location. Multiple emergency vehicles were present in the area.
Per AL.com, several Black Hawk helicopters have crashed during training exercises throughout the years. Whiteout conditions in Utah in 2022 caused a Black Hawk helicopter pilot to lose sight of where he was attempting to land, resulting in a collision with another aircraft at a Utah ski resort.
None of the men and women aboard the chopper or the resort's dozens of skiers were wounded. Three Idaho Army National Guard pilots perished in 2021 when their Black Hawk chopper crashed during a training trip in Boise.
And in the year 2020, two soldiers were killed, and three others were injured when a Black Hawk chopper crashed during a training exercise off the coast of Southern California.
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