Four Army soldiers are believed to have been killed in a Black Hawk crash in Washington state, the Army said Friday.
The MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in a rural area near Joint Base Lewis-McChord at around 9 p.m. local time Wednesday. The four soldiers were assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne).
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“Our hearts are with the families, friends, and teammates of these Night Stalkers,” Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, commander of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, said in a statement. “They were elite warriors who embodied the highest values of the Army and the Army Special Operations, and their sacrifice will never be forgotten.”
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, and recovery efforts remain underway. Joint Base Lewis-McChord is southwest of Tacoma, Washington, and hosts the I Corps and the 62nd Airlift Wing.
Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders wrote Wednesday in a social media post that the crash occurred near Summit Lake, around 20 miles west of the Washington state capital, Olympia. He noted that deputies had to wait to continue rescue efforts because “the scene is on fire and is starting to overheat their footwear.”
There were other challenges with the remoteness of the crash site, the Army told the New York Times.
“It’s very rural and it was hard to get to, and we don’t know what happened,” Lt. Col. Allie Scott, a spokeswoman with the Army, said on Thursday. “There is so much unknown.”
The names of the service members have yet to be released.
“We thank the skilled professionals who are working tirelessly, around the clock, to bring our Soldiers home,” Braga said.
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A UH-60L variant of the Black Hawk helicopter crashed into an American Airlines flight bound for Washington, D.C. in January, killing 64 people aboard the plane and three on the aircraft.
Similar to the helicopter in the January crash, the Black Hawk in Washington flew during the night. It’s unclear if the Black Hawk was intentionally conducting a night operation.