Two Black Hawk helicopters on a training mission in southwestern Kentucky crashed late on Wednesday, killing all nine service members on board.
The crash occurred in a county about 25 miles northwest of Fort Campbell, a military installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
“At approximately 10 p.m. yesterday two 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) helicopters crashed in Trigg County, Kentucky,” read a statement from the division.
The statement added that it was a “routine training mission” and that command’s focus was on caring for service members and their families.
A resident who lives about a mile from the crash, Nick Tomaszewski, told the Associated Press that the helicopters fly around their residence often, but never so low and close together.
“There were two back to back. We typically see one and then see another one a few minutes later, and we just saw two of them flying together last night,” Tomaszewski said.
“We saw what looked like a firework went off in the sky,” he continued. “All of the lights in their helicopter went out. It was like they just poofed…and then we saw a huge glow like a fireball.”
“Please pray for all those affected,” wrote Governor Andy Beshear in a tweet shortly after midnight on Thursday. Members of the Kentucky Senate also stood for a moment of silence Thursday morning in honor of the crash victims.
The incident follows a similar Black Hawk helicopter crash in Alabama in February, which left two Tennessee National Guard pilots dead.