The U.S. Army identified on Saturday the three soldiers who were killed when two helicopters collided in Alaska while returning from a training mission. The helicopters were headed to Fort Wainwright from a mission in the Donnelly Training Area when they crashed at 1:39 p.m. Thursday, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Healy. The U.S. Army announced Friday that it has grounded aviation units for training after 12 soldiers died within the last month in helicopter crashes in Alaska and Kentucky. “The move grounds all Army aviators, except those participating in critical missions, until they complete the required training,” the Army said in a statement. Killed in Thursday's crash were Chief Warrant Officer 3 Christopher Robert Eramo, 39, of Oneonta, New York; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle D. McKenna, 28, of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Warrant Officer 1 Stewart Duane Wayment, 32, of North Logan, Utah. A fourth soldier was injured and was taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and was listed in stable condition. He was not identified Saturday. “The battalion is devastated and mourning the loss of three of our best,” said Lt. Col. Matthew C. Carlsen, the 1-25th AB commander. Their loss can't be compared to the suffering felt by the soldiers' families, he said. “The entire team has come together to focus our thoughts, prayers, and actions to provide and sustain them with whatever comfort and support they need at this time, and I promise that this will continue long into the future,” he said. A Safety Investigation Team from the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center, based at Fort Novosel, Alabama, is leading the safety investigation, officials said in an email. Department of Defense instructions and Army regulations prohibit the investigators from releasing any information to the public concerning the causes, analysis or internal recommendations, the statement said. “The loss of these Soldiers is devastating and is being felt by family, friends and military communities across Alaska,” said Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler, commanding general of the 11th Airborne Division. “The families of Fort Wainwright and 1-25 are as strong a team as I’ve ever seen. Our hearts are heavy, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families, friends and loved ones of the fallen.”

A helicopter crash in a Kyiv suburb Wednesday killed 18 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and three children, Ukrainian authorities said. Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his deputy Yevhen Yenin and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yurii Lubkovych were among those killed, according to Ihor Klymenko, chief of Ukraine’s National Police. Monastyrskyi is the most senior Ukrainian official to have died since the start of the war with Russia almost 11 months ago. Nine of those killed were aboard the emergency services helicopter that crashed in Brovary, an eastern suburb of the Ukrainian capital, Klymenko said. Kyiv Regional Governor Oleksii Kuleba said three children were also killed. Earlier, officials and media reports said the helicopter crashed near a kindergarten. Read more: Death toll from Russian strike reaches 45, including 6 children There was no immediate word on whether the crash was an accident or a result of the war with Russia. No fighting has been reported recently in the Kyiv area. A total of 29 people were injured, including 15 children, the regional governor said. Ukraine first lady Olena Zelenska daubed teary eyes and pinched her nose in emotion minutes before attending a World Economic Forum session in Davos, Switzerland. Forum President Borge Brende requested 15 seconds of silence after opening the session to honor the Ukrainian officials killed in the crash.

A pilot of a training helicopter of the Bangladesh Army, who has been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Singapore after being injured in a helicopter crash on July 27 in Nawabganj upazila of Keraniganj, succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday. The deceased was identified as Air Wing Director of Rab Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Ismail Hossain, 45. Two pilots were injured as a training helicopter of the Bangladesh Army made crash landing on a waterbody  in Nawabganj Upazila of Dhaka district on July 27 The pilots- Lt Col Ismail and Major Shams were shifted to Dhaka Combined Military Hospital by a helicopter, according to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). Read: Army training helicopter makes crash landing in Nawabganj, 2 pilots hurt Col Ismail was airlifted to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on August 5 as he got severe injury in his backbone. On August 6, a successful surgery was conducted at the hospital but his physical condition started to be deteriorated. Later, he breathed his last on Tuesday at the hospital. Col Ismail was survived by his parents, wife and two sons. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Army Cheif, Senior Secretary of Security Division under Home Ministry, IGP, RAB DG and high officials concerned of Rab and Army expressed deep shock at the demise of Col Ismail and conveyed deep sympathy to the bereaved family members.

Pakistani search teams found the wreckage of a helicopter that went down the previous day in the country’s flood-stricken southwest, the military said Tuesday. An army general and five others on board were killed, it said. The previous evening, the aircraft had lost contact with the air-traffic control tower in Baluchistan province, while flying on a relief mission in a flood-hit area in the southwest.. A military statement identified the deceased officer as regional commander Lt. Gen. Sarfraz Ali. It said that, according to an initial probe, the crash happened due to bad weather. The helicopter was part of aid efforts in the flood-affected in Baluchistan, where rains and flash floods since June have killed nearly 150 people.. The military provided no further details. Pakistan's President Arif Ali, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other senior politicians offered their condolences to the victims' families Pakistan is currently using helicopters and boats to evacuate flood victims from various parts of the country, including Baluchistan and Rajanpur, a district in the eastern Punjab province. Read: Pakistan army helicopter crashes in Kashmir; 2 pilots killed Rains and flash floods have killed nearly 500 people across the country since June, when rains started lashing different parts of the country, triggering floods. Since then, rescue workers backed by the military have evacuated thousands of marooned people, including women and children, from various parts of Pakistan.   More rains are expected this week in Pakistan, where the monsoon season runs from July through September.

Four people have been killed in a crash of a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office helicopter that was headed back to Albuquerque after assisting firefighters in another New Mexico city, authorities said Sunday. Sheriff’s officials said three people from the sheriff’s office and a county firefighter were aboard the helicopter when it went down near Las Vegas, New Mexico, about 123 miles (197 kilometers) northeast of Albuquerque. Killed in the crash were Undersheriff Larry Koren, Lt. Fred Beers, Deputy Michael Levison and county Fire and Rescue Department Specialist Matthew King, according to sheriff's officials. The ages of the four men weren't immediately available. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman had said the Bell UH-1H helicopter crashed around 10 p.m. Saturday, but sheriff's officials said it was about 7:20 p.m. The cause of the crash is unknown and will be investigated by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board. Read:Ukrainian cargo plane crashes in Greece New Mexico State Police confirmed the crash and the fatalities around 12:15 a.m. Sunday. They said helicopter and its crew had been assisting with a wildfire in the Las Vegas area Saturday, providing bucket drops and other air logistics needs to fire crews on the ground. Sheriff's officials said they now are working with the Office of the Medical Investigator to recover the bodies of the four men and take them back to Albuquerque. Aerial video from KOAT-TV showed the wreckage of the helicopter in at least two pieces among some desert shrubs, the Albuquerque Journal reported. In the past several days, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office used its Metro 2 helicopter to fight a small fire in the East Mountains near Albuquerque and another fire near Santa Fe, according to Albuquerque TV station KQRE. “I am heartbroken by the tragic loss of four New Mexicans while in the line of duty," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement. "As we await additional details on the investigation, my office will offer any available support and assistance to the sheriff’s office and the county. State resources will be fully available to assist the investigation.”

A Vietnam-era helicopter showcased in action movies crashed on a rural West Virginia road, killing all six people on board, during an annual reunion for helicopter enthusiasts. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Bell UH-1B “Huey” helicopter crashed along Route 17 in Logan County about 5 p.m. Wednesday. All six people on board were killed, said Ray Bryant, chief of operations for the Logan County emergency ambulance service authority. The helicopter crashed in clear weather on a road near the local airport, he said. “The entire cab of it was on fire,” Bryant said in a phone interview Thursday. “It was recognized by the first responders as being a helicopter from this area because we see it a lot,” he said. The crash occurred during an annual reunion for helicopter enthusiasts at MARPAT Aviation in Logan. It was scheduled to begin Tuesday and end Sunday, according to MARPAT's website. During the event, visitors could sign up to ride or fly the historic helicopter, described by organizers as one of the last of its kind still flying. Read: Medical helicopter crashes near church; all 4 aboard survive The helicopter was flown by the 114th Assault Helicopter Company, “The Knights of the Sky,” in Vinh Long, Vietnam, throughout much of the 1960s, according to MARPAT. After the Huey returned to the U.S. in 1971, the website says, it was featured in movies like “Die Hard, “The Rock” and “Under Siege: Dark Territory." Neither reunion organizers nor MARPAT officials returned requests for comment Thursday. Patty Belcher, who lives nearby, was driving to the store when she came upon the crash. “There was smoke so thick that you couldn’t hardly see nothing but smoke and flames," she said by phone Thursday. "It was coming down the ditch line on the righthand side, and I said, ‘My God, I better turn around. It might catch this truck on fire.’ So I turned around and came back.” The crash was near the Battle of Blair Mountain historic sites, where a deadly clash erupted a century ago as thousands of coal miners marched to unionize in West Virginia. Read: Pakistan army helicopter crashes in Kashmir; 2 pilots killed Bobbi Childs saw smoke and flames and got close enough to see a man who was trapped. “I saw that there was a guy trapped, I guess the captain. I tried to get down to the door where he was at. You could see him plain as day. I tried to get to him, but the fire was too hot. I couldn’t get to him,” Childs told WOWK-TV. The road was expected to remain closed for at least 24 hours. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. ___ Willingham reported from Charleston, W.Va. Schreiner reported from Frankfort, Ky.

A pilot crash-landed a medical helicopter Tuesday without loss of life in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia, somehow avoiding a web of power lines and buildings as the aircraft fluttered, hit the street and slid into bushes outside a church, authorities and witnesses said. It was a “miracle” that none of the four people aboard, including an infant patient, suffered life-threatening injuries, Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy M. Bernhardt said. Rescue crews rushed to the wreckage by the Drexel Hill United Methodist Church in Upper Darby at about 1 p.m. and helped get the pilot, two crew members and the infant out of the aircraft, Bernhardt said at a press conference. The infant was taken to a hospital as authorities worked to notify the child’s family, Bernhardt said. The aircraft had taken off from out of state. It’s believed to have encountered mechanical problems during the flight, said a Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesperson, citing reports from county officials. At the crash site, a stop sign on the corner was cleaved into two and had apparently been hit by the helicopter when it came down. The aircraft was on its side in two pieces, just outside the stone church. Read: A glance, then grim truth for brother of Bronx fire victim “It’s a miracle, it’s an absolute miracle, here what you see behind me,” Bernhardt said, adding that he’s eager to shake the pilot’s hand for getting the helicopter down the way they did. A witness, Joshua James, said he was driving nearby with his wife and young son when he saw the tail of the helicopter swaying back and forth as it slid to a stop. He put his car in reverse. “It makes no sense to me that it didn’t hit any of the wires or anything — that it didn’t hit us,” James said. Jerrell Saunders, 28, said he had been walking from his work in maintenance at an apartment building nearby when he saw the helicopter “just floating, like real low, like extremely low, like it could land on the building that I work at.” He got in his car to go to the hardware store and the helicopter was going in the same direction. He said he saw it hit the ground in the middle of the road and slide across the ground until it crashed. Read: North Korea claims successful test of hypersonic missile “I guess the pilot tried to land in a safe area, because it took a bounce on the a ground and fell and, like, slid,” Saunders said. The helicopter turned on its side and, as smoke was coming out, he saw people jumping out of the helicopter. “I’m telling my grandkids about this one,” he said. A fire official said the helicopter had about an hour’s worth of fuel left at the time of the crash, and crews took steps to keep leaking fuel from contaminating groundwater. The Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft was a Eurocopter EC135 medical helicopter and that the agency was investigating, along with the National Transportation Safety Board. A spokesman for Air Methods, the air medical emergency transport service that owns the helicopter, said it was part of the LifeNet program based in Hagerstown, Maryland. Federal agencies were investigating. “Our team will cooperate fully with their efforts to assess the cause of this unfortunate accident,” said Air Methods spokesman Doug Flanders.

A Pakistani army helicopter crashed on Monday in bad weather in the Pakistan-administered section of disputed Kashmir, killing the two pilots on board, the military said. A statement from the military said the helicopter went down on the Siachen glacier, one of the world’s longest mountain glaciers, located in the Karakoram Range, and often referred to as the “highest battleground on earth” because of the wars that Pakistan and India have fought over the Himalayan region of Kashmir. Also read: Resistance leader’s death deepens Kashmir strife Rescue helicopters and troops have been dispatched to Siachen, the military said. No further details on the crash were immediately available. The two pilots were identified as Maj. Irfan Bercha and Maj. Raja Zeeshan Jahanzeb. Siachen is known for tragedies, a desolate place where more troops have died from avalanches or bitter cold than in combat. Since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir. Also read: Wave of killings triggers memories of dark past in Kashmir

A helicopter crash overnight has taken the lives of at least nine Afghan military personnel in a central province, the defense ministry said Thursday.

A helicopter belonging to an international peacekeeping force crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Thursday, killing at least seven people including several Americans, an Israeli and an Egyptian official said. Both sides said the crash appeared to be an accident.