U.S. Army helicopter 'hard landing' kills one

Originally published on January 17, 2014

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One U.S. soldier has died after the MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter he was flying in made a 'hard landing' at the Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, late Thursday (January 16) night. Two other crew members were also injured after their craft slammed into the ground.

The soldiers in the chopper were part of the elite 160th Special Aviation Operations Regiment - also called the 'Night Stalkers' - a group that specializes in night raids into enemy territory. This division was the same group that piloted the helicopters carrying U.S. SEAL team members that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011.

The 160th Special Aviation Operations Regiment is based in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but the regiment has a battalion stationed at the Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, where the accident occurred late Thursday night.

The airfield is located near the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia, and some 5,000 U.S. soldiers, airmen and coast guardsmen are based at the station.

Thursday's crash is the third such accident in just over a week. On January 8, three U.S. sailors were killed after their Navy Sea Dragon chopper went down in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of the state of Virginia.

On that same day, a U.S. Air Force Pave Hawk helicopter, which is generally used as a rescue or evacuation craft, crashed in a marshy coastal area of Norfolk, eastern England. That crash claimed the lives of all four crew members aboard.

The names of the soldier who died on Thursday has not been released pending notification of kin.

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