Late last night, around 9:00 p.m. PDT, officials at Gray Army Airfield on Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma, Washington, reported they had “lost contact” with a helicopter operating southwest of the base near Summit Lake. Local and military responders located a debris field and several fires in the area, later confirming the aircraft had gone down, killing multiple Soldiers onboard.

This morning, the U.S. Army clarified that the aircraft was not an AH-64E Apache, as initially reported, but an MH-60M Black Hawk belonging to the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the “Night Stalkers.” At least four Soldiers, including two pilots, were aboard when the helicopter crashed west of Olympia. The cause remains under investigation, and the identities of those killed have not been released. Recovery efforts have been complicated by a small wildfire sparked by the crash.