FirstAlerts
Plane CrashesVersion 4

Two U.S. Army Soldiers Killed in AH-64 Helicopter Crash in Bell County, Texas

An Apache attached to Fort Hood came down in a field on August 12, 2026, sparking a large grass fire, according to reporting by four outlets.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 13, 2026, 2:23 a.m. ET
soldiers were killed when an crashed into a field in Bell County, , on August 12, 2026, according to reporting by wsau.com, wtvbam.com, wkzo.com and wabx.net. The situation is developing. The outlets reported that people were on board and that a Bell County justice of the peace declared both of them dead. The helicopter was attached to the 's Fort Hood base and crashed during Fort Hood operations, according to the reporting, which added that Fort Hood withheld the identification of the dead soldiers pending notification of their families. The crash sparked a large grass fire, and several local fire departments responded to the blaze, the four outlets reported. The cause has not been determined. The specific aircraft involved has not been identified; registry records list three aircraft on the registry under the , and that record is not an identification of the helicopter in this crash.

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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 Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.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
548 ft
Nearest aerodrome
7.0 miles NW of Austin Bergstrom International Airport (KAUS/AUS)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 413 Aug 2026, 06:23current

    Added wabx.net as a fourth corroborating outlet and added headline and dek.

  2. Version 313 Aug 2026, 04:33

    Added wsau.com as a third corroborating source and the detail that a Bell County justice of the peace declared the two on board dead.

  3. Version 213 Aug 2026, 03:54

    Added second-source attribution to wkzo.com throughout, corrected the operator registry count from one to three aircraft, and added a headline and dek.

  4. Version 113 Aug 2026, 03:28

    First published.

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