A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed Tuesday in the wooded foothills west of Denver, north of Golden Gate Canyon State Park, with all four soldiers aboard escaping without injury. The Gilpin County Sheriff's Office confirmed emergency crews reached the scene and found no fire, no fuel leak and no threat to surrounding neighborhoods.
The Army Special Operations Aviation Command identified the aircraft as an MH-60 Black Hawk assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), an elite unit headquartered at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The 160th—known informally as the Night Stalkers—flies special operations missions and maintains some of the most rigorous training schedules in the U.S. military.
"The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) is aware of an August 25, 2026, aviation mishap during routine training operations near Denver, Colorado. The command takes all training incidents and the safety of our personnel seriously," the Army Special Operations Aviation Command said in a statement.
Images from the scene showed the helicopter resting among trees in mountainous terrain. The Gilpin County Sheriff's Office set up a staging area for emergency personnel at a nearby campground as the Army's investigation got underway. Officials have not stated what caused the aircraft to go down.
The Army characterized the incident as an "aviation mishap"—the service's standard term for an unplanned aircraft event under investigation—rather than a crash attributed to hostile action or mechanical failure, though those categories have not been ruled out.
Tuesday's incident adds to a string of Army aviation accidents in 2026. Weeks earlier, an Apache attack helicopter went down in Texas, killing two soldiers and sparking a wildfire. The combined total of military aviation accidents so far in 2026 has already surpassed the full-year count for 2025, though officials have not released a specific figure.
The 160th Regiment trains constantly for low-altitude, night and adverse-weather operations, missions that place significant stress on airframes and crews. The regiment has been involved in some of the most high-profile special operations missions in U.S. military history, and its aircraft log far more flight hours per crew member than conventional Army aviation units.
