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Army resumes Apache training after fatal Texas crash
The Army has resumed Apache helicopter training sessions a week after two soldiers were killed during a training flight near Fort Hood in central Texas. FOX 4's Shaun Rabb has more.
FORT HOOD, Texas - Less than a week after two U.S. Army soldiers were killed in a deadly crash in Bell County, the U.S. Army has resumed training missions involving Apache helicopters.
What we know:
On Wednesday, Aug. 19, the U.S. Army announced it would resume Apache helicopter flight training operations after a 5-day stand down.
"This decision comes after a thorough review of safety procedures and flight operations," the U.S. Army said in a statement.
A review of the crash site is being conducted by a team from Fort Rucker in Alabama.
Bell County helicopter crash
The backstory:
The stand-down was initiated on Aug. 14 after two people were killed Wednesday when a Fort Hood AH-64 Apache attack helicopter violently crashed into a field in Salado in Central Texas,
The crash sparked a wildfire that forced evacuations and sent emergency crews racing to the scene.
Deontre Huey (L) and Seth Olmstead (R)
The two people who were killed in Fort Hood were identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Deontre T. Huey, 34, of Killeen, Texas, and Warrant Officer Seth L. Olmstead, 25, of Belton, Texas.
Huey entered the Army in 2014 and Olmstead entered in 2023.
Huey's sister released the following statement on Deontre Huey's passing:
"Deontre's life cannot be defined by the tragedy that took him from us. He was a person with a story, a personality, relationships, memories, and a place in the hearts of so many people. That is how we want him remembered."
What we don't know:
No cause of the crash has been released by the Army.
The military is not required to release a cause in order to protect national security.
Dig deeper:
Though Apache training missions were grounded from Aug. 14 to Aug. 19, the U.S. Army continued using them in combat missions in the Middle East during that time period.
What they're saying:
Ron McCallum, a former military and commercial pilot, says the quick turnaround on resuming Apache training missions means the Army probably has a good idea of what caused the crash.
Ron McCallum
"They will have some level of knowledge mechanically at a minimum in terms of what, if anything, malfunctioned in the machine itself," McCallum tells FOX 4's Shaun Rabb.
McCallum says the Apache helicopters are notoriously difficult to fly.
"Anyone that's flown one or been in contact with them, mechanically or otherwise, knows this," McCallum continued. "There's a lot of living parts, so things can go wrong, and when they do go wrong, they go wrong very rapidly."
The Source: Information in this story comes from the U.S. Army and FOX 4 reporting.