A US Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a routine training flight in Colorado on Tuesday, with all four people aboard escaping injury.
The aircraft, operated by the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the “Night Stalkers,” came down near Thorodin Mountain in Gilpin County, west of Denver, where images showed it upright among trees with badly damaged rotor blades.
Emergency crews reported no fire or fuel leak, while the Army described the crash as an “aviation mishap” and launched an investigation.
The incident adds to scrutiny of US Army aviation safety following several serious accidents, including a fatal Black Hawk training crash in Washington state last year and the January 2025 collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet near Washington, DC.
A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter has crashed in Colorado while carrying four crew members. The status of the crew and the cause of the crash are currently unknown. pic.twitter.com/0EWyqvLMqD
— OSINTWarfare (@OSINTWarfare) August 25, 2026
Pentagon figures previously showed the rate of the military’s most serious aviation accidents rose 55% between 2020 and 2024, while Army data cited by CNN indicate AH-64 Apache helicopters have recorded five Class A flight mishaps so far in fiscal 2026.
