Two Killed in Army Apache Helicopter Crash Near Salado, Texas
Both occupants of the helicopter died in the August 12 crash in Bell County, which also started a grass fire; the cause has not been determined.
By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 13, 2026, 4:18 a.m. ET
people on board a were killed when it crashed near , on August 12, 2026, at , according to NBC DFW and BNO News; the Daily Caller put the time at and OANN at . Sources differ on the exact aircraft: NBC DFW described it as an , while OANN, PJ Media and the Daily Caller described it as an and BNO News only as an . The operator was given as the by NBC DFW, PJ Media and the Daily Caller, and as the by OANN. The outlets reported that the Boeing-built Apache attack helicopter carries a crew of , and the Daily Caller reported the helicopter belonged to the 1st Cavalry Division and crashed less than 20 miles from Fort Hood.
NBC DFW reported the crash site was along the 16500 block of Kuykendall Branch Road, about a half-mile west of Interstate 35; BNO News reported wreckage was found in a field about half a mile west of 16400 Kuykendall Branch Road, south of Salado. NBC DFW, BNO News, PJ Media, OANN and the Daily Caller all reported fatalities. NBC DFW and the Daily Caller reported both dead were crew, with no deaths or injuries on the ground, and BNO News and the Daily Caller reported people were on board. A Bell County justice of the peace pronounced the occupants dead at about :30 p.m., the outlets reported. Bell County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Cliff Coleman said, "It was a violent crash," according to BNO News. Gov. Greg Abbott said the crashed in Bell County during Fort Hood operations, killing members of the military. The Fort Hood Media Center confirmed the crash but not the casualties, the outlets reported, and a source at Fort Hood said the installation was on lockdown after the crash.
The crash sparked a large grass fire that had burned about 100 acres by about 5 p.m., according to NBC DFW, which reported that Farm-to-Market Road 2843 north of the crash site was impassable because of the fire and that several homes near the crash site south of Fort Hood were evacuated as a precaution. No structures or buildings were damaged, the outlet reported. The Daily Caller reported the fire was later named the Dove Hollow Fire by the A&M Forest Service and that it consumed roughly 100 acres and reached 45% containment by 5:00 p.m. BNO News described the fire as an out-of-control wildfire that forced several evacuations, and OANN reported emergency crews responded to a large wildfire sparked by the crash, prompting localized evacuations.
The cause of the crash has not been determined; NBC DFW, BNO News and the Daily Caller reported an investigation is open, while PJ Media described the cause as unknown. Accounts of who is investigating differ: NBC DFW reported that Fort Hood's Criminal Investigation Division is leading the investigation, while the Daily Caller reported that Fort Hood and the sheriff's office have opened a joint investigation into what brought the aircraft down. Brig. Gen. Ethan Diven, the acting commanding general, said the immediate priority is securing the site and supporting initial response efforts. Accounts of the aircraft's origin also differ in how firmly they are stated: OANN reported the helicopter was operating out of the Fort Hood military installation, while BNO News reported that Coleman said the helicopter is believed to be from Fort Hood — about 20 miles northwest of Salado — but deferred definitive confirmation to military investigators. Investigators have not determined where the helicopter departed from or where it was flying. NBC DFW reported the bodies were to be taken to Fort Hood's Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center and that the identities of the dead soldiers would be released Thursday, after their families had been notified. U.S. Representative John Carter said his office is monitoring the crash.
Weather observations recorded at Skylark Field (KILE), 13.1 miles away and 22 minutes from the reported time of the crash, showed wind from 170 degrees at 10 knots, visibility 10 statute miles, clear skies and a temperature of 95°F. That is a measurement only and is not a stated cause of anything. 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. Geographic reference data places Salado in Bell County, , at a settlement elevation of 614 feet, about 1.8 miles from Salado Airport (73TA).
Was this report accurate and useful?
Reference data
From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.
Added Daily Caller reporting (1st Cavalry Division aircraft, joint Fort Hood–sheriff's office investigation, Dove Hollow Fire named by Texas A&M Forest Service at 45% containment) and corrected the operator registry count from three aircraft to one.
Version 713 Aug 2026, 08:12
Added Gov. Greg Abbott's statement, Brig. Gen. Ethan Diven's comment on securing the site, the reported Fort Hood lockdown and the Fort Hood Media Center's partial confirmation; noted PJ Media's differing cause status.
Version 613 Aug 2026, 07:53
Added OANN as a third source with the August 12 date, a competing 1:35 p.m. time and an AH-64 Apache description; added nearby-field weather observations and dropped the developing-story caveat.
Version 513 Aug 2026, 05:23
Updated operator fleet count to three aircraft on the registry and added that both outlets reported the Boeing-built Apache carries a crew of two.
Version 413 Aug 2026, 04:50
Corrected the operator fleet figure: registry records list one aircraft under the U.S. Army, not three.
Version 313 Aug 2026, 04:38
Removed the undated bare weekday ("released Thursday") from the fourth paragraph. The substance the reader needs — that NBC DFW reported the dead soldiers' identities would be released after family notification — is retained, and the story now notes plainly that no calendar date for the announced release day is available in the source material, rather than inventing one. All figures, times, addresses, quotes, sourced conflicts on aircraft type and investigation status, and attributions are unchanged.
Version 213 Aug 2026, 04:20
Removed the unanchored weekday reference ("released Thursday") and replaced it with the substance the source supports — identities to be released after family notification — plus an explicit note that the source gave no calendar date. No other facts, figures or attributions were changed.
Version 113 Aug 2026, 02:52
First published.
How we work
This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.
Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.
Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.
None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.