Florida aviation accident – On Wednesday night, during a training exercise, two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed in a field outside Fort Campbell, Kentucky, killing nine men. According to a press release from the Army, those killed were 101st Airborne Division soldiers Warrant Officer 1 Aaron Healy, 32; Staff Sgt. Taylor Mitchell, 30; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rusten Smith, 32; and Sgt. David Solinas Jr., 23. Also killed were Chief Warrant Officer 2 Zachary Esparza, 36; Sgt. Isaacjohn Gayo, 27; Staff Sgt. Joshua Gore, 25; and Sgt.
Florida Black Hawk helicopter crash
At around 10:00 p.m. local time, the medical evacuation helicopters crashed in an open field near some homes while practicing a routine mission. Nine service men were killed in the crash of two planes. According to Lt. Col. Anthony Hoefler, a spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division, four helicopters were not involved in the training exercise, contrary to what CNN had previously reported. The nine dead troops represented a wide range of ethnicities.
According to service records released by the Army, Barnes enlisted in the Army as an aeromedical evacuation pilot in Florida in 2010 and later deployed to Afghanistan with the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade. Bolanos, an air crew member and UH-60 helicopter repairer from the Philippines, enlisted in Texas in 2019 and spent the next year and a half serving in Germany as part of Atlantic Resolve.
Esparza, a Texan by birth, enlisted in the military from Missouri in 2010 and had been working with the brigade as an instructor pilot since October 2021. Gayo, who was also born in the Philippines, enlisted in the United States Army in the Golden State in 2019. Gore enlisted in the Army in 2015 and by May of 2022 had become a flight paramedic with the brigade. After enlisting in the Army in 2010, Healy began serving as an Aeromedical Evacuation Pilot with the brigade in 2022.
In addition to his duties as a flight paramedic with the brigade, Mitchell enlisted in 2014. Smith enlisted in the Army in 2012 and has since served as a brigade instructor pilot, during which time he has traveled twice to Afghanistan and spent nine months in Germany in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve. Solinas enlisted in the military in 2018 as a flight paramedic.
Jeffrey Barnes obituary and funeral arrangements will be released by family members
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