US Army Black Hawk helicopter crashes during training in Colorado

A US Army Black Hawk went down during a training flight in Colorado on Tuesday, just a day after CNN reported that Apache attack helicopters are crashing at a historically high rate amid persistent mechanical problems.

The Black Hawk went down on the east side of Thorodin Mountain in Gilpin County, west of Denver and near Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Four people were aboard, but no injuries were reported. Emergency crews also found no fuel leak or fire and said there was no danger to the surrounding community.

Footage and aerial images from the scene show the helicopter sitting upright among trees with its rotor blades heavily damaged.

The Black Hawk had flown from Fort Campbell, Kentucky and belongs to the Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers. The Army described the incident as an “aviation mishap” during routine training operations and said an investigation is underway.

The unit suffered a deadly crash last September, when an MH-60M Black Hawk went down during nighttime training near Summit Lake in Washington state, killing all four soldiers aboard.

A far more devastating Black Hawk disaster thrust Army aviation into the national spotlight on January 29, 2025, when an Army UH-60L Black Hawk collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 as the passenger jet approached Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River, killing all 64 people aboard the airliner and all three soldiers in the helicopter.

The disaster – the deadliest US aviation accident since 2001 – triggered heightened scrutiny of military helicopter operations and aviation safety. Internal Pentagon figures provided to Congress and reviewed by AP last year showed that the rate of Class A mishaps – the military’s most serious category of aviation accidents – jumped 55% from 2020 to 2024.