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Plane CrashesVersion 3

Two Soldiers Killed in Army Apache Helicopter Crash Near Salado, Texas

UPI, Breitbart and WWAY report both people aboard died; the crash started a wildfire, and the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 13, 2026, 9:59 a.m. ET
soldiers were killed when an Army Apache helicopter crashed near , on a , according to reporting by UPI, Breitbart and WWAY. All three outlets report people were aboard and both died. UPI and Breitbart identify the aircraft as an ; WWAY describes it as an . Details remain incomplete. The outlets give different dates for the crash: UPI dates it to Aug. 12, 2026, while Breitbart dates it to Aug. 12, 2020. The conflict is unresolved in the available reporting, and neither date can be preferred over the other here. The helicopter was based at Fort Hood and crashed less than 20 miles from the post, according to the reporting, coming down in a field without striking any homes or other structures. The soldiers were transported to Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood and had not yet been identified. The Army said the names of the victims would be released 24 hours after families were notified. The crash sparked a large, uncontrolled wildfire, according to Bell County Sheriff's Office spokesman Cliff Coleman, as cited by the outlets. The fire was still burning out of control as of about 3:30 p.m. local time, and some evacuation orders for local residents were in effect Wednesday evening. Texas A&M Fire Service said at about 6:30 p.m. that the fire had covered about 155 acres and was about 85% controlled. The aircraft involved has not been identified by registration. Registry records list three aircraft on the registry under the as operator; that is what the operator holds on the registry and is not an identification of the helicopter in this crash. According to geographic reference data, Salado is in Bell County at a settlement elevation of 614 feet, 1.8 miles north of Salado Airport (73TA) and 4.1 miles northeast of Salado Bluffs Airport (TT61); that locates the town, not the crash site. The cause of the crash has not been determined, and no investigative findings have been reported.

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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 Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Terrain elevation
614 ft
Nearest aerodrome
1.8 miles N of Salado Airport (73TA)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 313 Aug 2026, 13:59current

    Added the aircraft-type disagreement (AH-64E per UPI/Breitbart vs AH-64 per WWAY), the crash into a field with no structures hit, the fire still out of control about 3:30 p.m., the Army's 24-hour notification policy on victims' names, and corrected the operator fleet count to three.

  2. Version 213 Aug 2026, 08:33

    Added the unresolved date conflict between UPI (2026) and Breitbart (2020), attributed facts to both outlets, and corrected the bearings to the two nearby airports per reference data.

  3. Version 113 Aug 2026, 04:58

    First published.

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