The tragic faces of all nine US servicemen killed in the horror Kentucky helicopter crash have been revealed by the Army.
The Soldiers were killed in a helicopter accident near Fort Campbell, Kentucky on Wednesday evening while participating in a planned training exercise.
The crash occurred in Trigg County, about 30 miles northwest of the Army post that is home to the 101st Airborne Division.
An Army aviation safety team from Fort Rucker, Alabama is on site and conducting an investigation into the accident.
“This is a time of great sadness for the 101st Airborne Division. The loss of these Soldiers will reverberate through our formations for years to come,” said Major General JP McGee, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Fort Campbell.
“Now is the time for grieving and healing. The whole division and this community stand behind the families and friends of our fallen Soldiers," he added.
The name, age, and home of record for each of the nine Soldiers is listed below:
- Warrant Officer 1 Jeffery Barnes, 33, of Milton, Florida
- Cpl. Emilie Marie Eve Bolanos, 23, of Austin, Texas
- Chief Warrant Officer 2 Zachary Esparza, 36, of Jackson, Missouri
- Sgt. Isaacjohn Gayo, 27, of Los Angeles, California
- Staff Sgt. Joshua C. Gore, 25, of Morehead City, North Carolina
- Warrant Officer 1 Aaron Healy, 32, of Cape Coral, Florida
- Staff Sgt. Taylor Mitchell, 30, of Mountain Brook, Alabama
- Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rusten Smith, 32, of Rolla, Missouri
- Sgt. David Solinas Jr, 23, of Oradell, New Jersey
A special military investigative team was on the scene Friday but weather conditions have slowed the early work, Army officials said.
The team of about eight members from Fort Rucker, Alabama, arrived at the scene around 7pm Thursday night but rain and wind have slowed their efforts, said Dawn Grimes, a public information officer at Fort Campbell.
"The investigation is active but it has been hampered by weather," Ms Grimes said on Friday.
The two Black Hawks were flying together during a training exercise at night, Army officials said.
The Black Hawk helicopter is a critical workhorse for the US Army and is used in security, transport, medical evacuations, search and rescue and other missions.
The accident occurred during flying, despite wearing night goggles, and not during the course of a medical evacuation drill, said Brigadier General John Lubas, the 101st Airborne deputy commander.
The Black Hawk helicopters have something similar to the black boxes on passenger planes, which records the performance of aircrafts in flight and are used by investigators to analyse crashes.
Officials said they are hoping that device yields some information about the cause of Wednesday's deadly crash.
The crash was the deadliest training incident for the Army since March 2015, when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed into the water off the Florida coast in dense fog, said Jimmie Cummings, spokesperson for the Army Combat Readiness Centre at Fort Rucker.
Four soldiers from the Louisiana Army National Guard and seven Marine special operations forces were killed.
Mr Cummings said the most deadly non-combat Black Hawk crash was in 1988 and also involved Fort Campbell aircraft.
The crash - which had the third highest number of fatalities for an Army aircraft training mission - killed 17 troops when two helicopters collided in mid-air.
In addition, the most deadly Army aircraft training incident was a Chinook crash in Germany in 1982, that killed 46 U.S. and international forces.
The second was a C-23 Sherpa fixed wing aircraft crash in Georgia in 2001 that killed 21 Army and Air Guard personnel.
