Crashes Prompt Army National Guard to Ground Helicopter Units
The safety stand-down of all ANG helicopter units comes days after a Mississippi National Guard AH-64 crash kills two soldiers.
A pair of AH-64 Apache helicopters assigned to the Utah National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 211th Aviation Regiment, perform a fly-over at the annual Governor’s Day celebration at Camp Williams, Utah, September 14, 2019. [Courtesy: U.S. Air National Guard]
Two recent crashes have prompted the Army National Guard to ground its fleet of helicopters in an aviation safety review stand-down, the National Guard Bureau announced Tuesday.
The news comes days after two soldiers were killed when a Mississippi National Guard (MSNG) AH-64 Apache went down during a training flight near Booneville, Mississippi. The fatal incident was the second AH-64 crash in February. On February 12, a Utah National Guard Apache went down, injuring two on board.
"Two separate crashes of AH-64D Apache helicopters in Utah on February 12 and Mississippi on February 23 drove the decision to ground all [ANG] helicopters for safety reasons," the service said.
The stand-down went into effect Monday, the Army National Guard said.
“We are a combat force with helicopters training or on mission worldwide every day,” Lieutenant General Jon Jensen, director of the Army National Guard, said in a statement. “Safety is always at the top of our minds. We will stand down to ensure all of our crews are prepared as well as possible for whatever they’re asked to do.”
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