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Plane CrashesVersion 7

Two Killed in U.S. Army Helicopter Crash in Central Texas

An AH-64 Apache came down in a field near Salado on August 12, 2026, sparking a wildfire that forced evacuations; the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 12, 2026, 10:05 p.m. ET
people were killed when a helicopter crashed in Central Texas on August 12, 2026, according to reporting by the Boston Herald, The Epoch Times, the Brandon Sun and iHeart stations 960 WELI, WONW 1280, WHP 580, KNRS, WMEQ and WJDX. Most of those outlets identified the aircraft as an ; The Epoch Times described it as an . The Boston Herald and The Epoch Times reported the operator as the , the Brandon Sun as the , and KNRS gave the operator as . The Boston Herald and the Brandon Sun put people on board. The outlets reported that the people killed had not been identified. The event is still developing. The helicopter went down in a field off Dove Hollow Lane, about 30 minutes from . WONW 1280, 960 WELI, WHP 580, KNRS, WMEQ, WJDX, The Epoch Times and the Brandon Sun placed the site south of Salado, while the Boston Herald described the crash in relation to . The Epoch Times reported that the helicopter was based out of , near Killeen, and came down in Salado, about 20 miles away. The iHeart stations reported the time as A military official told The Associated Press the Apache was on a routine training flight when it went down. Brig. Gen. Ethan Diven, the acting commanding general, said the immediate priority was securing the site and supporting initial response efforts. Bell County Sheriff's spokesman Cliff Coleman said the helicopter did not hit any homes or other structures. A sheriff's official said the crash sparked a wildfire — attributed in the reporting to dry conditions — that forced several homes to be evacuated as emergency crews worked to control the flames. Photographs from the scene showed firefighters walking around a charred field with dark smoke rising from the wreckage. The Boston Herald described as a base with 214,968 acres (336 square miles) used to train and deploy heavy forces. The cause has not been determined. The Boston Herald and the Brandon Sun reported that an investigation is open, with 's criminal investigation division leading the crash investigation, according to Coleman; the accounts from WONW 1280 and WHP 580 left the cause unknown. The phase of flight was not established in the reporting. No registration or tail number has been reported, and the aircraft involved has not been identified; registry records list one aircraft under the as operator, which is not an identification of the helicopter in this crash.

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Revision history

  1. Version 713 Aug 2026, 02:05current

    Corrected the operator fleet count in registry records from two aircraft to one; added Diven's title and the scene photograph detail.

  2. Version 613 Aug 2026, 01:53

    Corrected the operator fleet count in registry records from three aircraft to two, and added WMEQ and WJDX to the outlets cited.

  3. Version 513 Aug 2026, 01:40

    No new facts; story text unchanged, headline and dek added for publication.

  4. Version 413 Aug 2026, 01:29

    Added Brandon Sun sourcing for the aircraft type, operator, location, souls on board and open investigation, and attributed the routine-training-flight account to The Associated Press.

  5. Version 313 Aug 2026, 01:19

    Added WHP 580 and KNRS as reporting outlets, noted KNRS's differing operator attribution, and corrected the operator fleet figure in registry records from one aircraft to three.

  6. Version 213 Aug 2026, 01:09

    Added The Epoch Times as a source, noted its differing description of the aircraft type, its detail that the helicopter was based at Fort Hood near Killeen and came down about 20 miles away, and that the two people killed remain unidentified.

  7. Version 113 Aug 2026, 00:55

    First published.

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