Officials from the Army have identified the three soldiers who passed away on Thursday morning after the two helicopters in which they were operating were involved in a collision mid-air close to Healy.
The victims are Chief Warrant Officer 3 Christopher Eramo of Oneonta, New York; 28-year-old Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle McKenna of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and 32-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Stewart Wayment of North Logan, Utah.
A fourth soldier injured by the crash and was transported to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital is still receiving treatment at the hospital. A press release released on Saturday from the 11th Airborne Division says the soldier is in stable condition. Officials from the Army haven’t released the name of the soldier.
11th Airborne spokesperson John Pennell stated that the soldiers were operating two Apache helicopters in Fort Wainwright’s 1st Attack Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment. Pennell said the Apaches were returning on Thursday afternoon after a training exercise at the Donnelly Training Area near Fort Greely after they collided. The helicopters struck a wall about 50 miles to the to the east Healy.
“The landscape is extremely rough steep, mountainous, deep snow, densely forested. This required helicopters, and hoists to get into the area,” He said.
Pennell said there was not much information on other factors that might contribute to the collision. However, he said that investigators would arrive on Saturday at the scene of the crash.
“There are safety inquiry which is currently being conducted through the army’s Combat Readiness Center out of Ft. Novosel, Alabama,” he said. “Until they’ve reached their decision, there’s absolutely no way I can offer any information about the situation.”
The Federal Aviation Administration has restricted flight traffic to 25 nautical miles from the crash site until May 4, in order to speed up the investigation.
Thursday’s crash was the second of this year’s crashes involving 11th Airborne Apache helicopters in Alaska. Two soldiers from the 11th Airborne Battalion were injured when the Apache helicopter they were on crashed shortly after takeoff at Talkeetna Airport. Talkeetna Airport, where they stopped to refill their tanks when returning from Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson.
In March nine soldiers were killed in Kentucky in Kentucky when they were killed when the Blackhawk helicopter in which they were riding in crashed during a routine, nighttime exercise.
In the wake of the crashes In response to the crash, after the crash, Army in response to the crash on Thursday shut down all of the aviation divisions and required that they conduct training this week, before allowing them to fly again.
