{"id":42223,"date":"2026-08-13T03:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T22:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42223"},"modified":"2026-08-13T03:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T22:05:11","slug":"two-people-are-dead-after-a-military-helicopter-crashes-in-texas-sparking-a-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42223","title":{"rendered":"Two people are dead after a military helicopter crashes in Texas, sparking a fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-82e54f\" class=\"body-graf\">Two people who were on board a military helicopter were killed Wednesday when it crashed in Salado, Texas, the Bell County Sheriff\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2a0397\" class=\"body-graf\">They were pronounced dead after officials responded to 911 calls around 1:30 p.m., said Cliff Coleman of the Bell County Sheriff\u2019s Office. Salado is about 50 miles north of Austin. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-b193ec\" class=\"body-graf\">The AH-64 U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter is based at Fort Hood, the military installation said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-4cc05b\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cOur immediate priority is securing the site and supporting the initial response efforts,\u201d Brig. Gen. Ethan Diven, acting commanding general, said in a statement. \u201cOur thoughts are with the crew and their families as we await further information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2f8563\" class=\"body-graf\">The victims have not yet been publicly identified. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"styles_inlineImage__FvnTh styles_medium__MEKii\" id=\"anchor-007e62\"><picture class=\"styles_image__i32F7\" data-testid=\"picture\" data-flavor=\"fit\" data-original-height=\"3024\" data-original-width=\"4032\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1000px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260812-salado-texas-helicopter-crash-ew-542p-0c9cbb.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260812-salado-texas-helicopter-crash-ew-542p-0c9cbb.jpg 1x\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260812-salado-texas-helicopter-crash-ew-542p-0c9cbb.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260812-salado-texas-helicopter-crash-ew-542p-0c9cbb.jpg 1x\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260812-salado-texas-helicopter-crash-ew-542p-0c9cbb.jpg\" alt=\"The scene of a helicopter crash in Salado, Texas on Aug. 12, 2026.\" height=\"3024\" width=\"4032\"\/><\/picture><figcaption class=\"caption styles_caption__TCewG\" data-testid=\"caption\"><span class=\"caption__container\" data-testid=\"caption__container\">The scene of a helicopter crash in Salado, Texas on Wednesday.<\/span><span class=\"caption__source\" data-testid=\"caption__source\">Bell County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"anchor-73ded6\" class=\"body-graf\">No structures were damaged, and no other injuries were reported, Coleman said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-34f1bc\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cIt crashed into a field, and you could tell it was a violent crash,\u201d Coleman told reporters on scene.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-7362fb\" class=\"body-graf\">The crash caused a large fire that \u201clooks to be out of control,\u201d he said. It has led to a large area of land being burned and has prompted some evacuations in the area.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-801155\" class=\"body-graf\">Local emergency responders, military personnel and law enforcement all responded to the incident. The criminal investigation division of Fort Hood is leading the inquiry.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-623fe8\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">The AH-64 Apache helicopter is a twin-engine, four-bladed, multi-mission attack helicopter designed as a highly stable aerial weapons-delivery platform, the Army said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.army.mil\/article\/137579\/ah_64e_apache_attack_helicopter\" target=\"_blank\">on its website<\/a>, calling it \u201cthe most advanced aerial fighting vehicle in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two people who were on board a military helicopter were killed Wednesday when it crashed in Salado, Texas, the Bell County Sheriff\u2019s Office said. They were pronounced dead after officials responded to 911 calls around 1:30 p.m., said Cliff Coleman of the Bell County Sheriff\u2019s Office. Salado is about 50 miles north of Austin. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260812-salado-texas-helicopter-crash-ew-543p-eecc75.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}