A Black Hawk helicopter crash outside of Joint Base Lewis-McChord shone a light on the risks and harshness of military aviation, especially for elite flight crews flying some of the Army’s deadliest missions. In the late evening of September 17, an MH-60 Black Hawk from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, commonly known as the “Night Stalkers,” crashed in a countryside area near Summit Lake, directly west of the large base just outside Tacoma, Washington. Four special operations soldiers were on board, and the Army to date has not released their status.
According to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, “four servicemembers assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) were aboard an MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter involved in an aviation accident in a rural area just off Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, Sept 17”. The accident occurred around 9 p.m., and the cause is under investigation.
The 160th SOAR is not an ordinary unit. These are the pilots who are flying under the radar—literally and figuratively—carrying special operations troops to the world’s most dangerous hot zones. If the name is familiar, it’s because Night Stalkers carried Navy SEALs into Pakistan for the bin Laden raid. Their legend is unmatched, but so are the dangers. The unit is also headquartered at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but has one battalion at JBLM, so this crash came close to home for the military community of the Pacific Northwest.
Firefighters and emergency responders were faced with a gauntlet of challenges getting to the site of the crash. The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office reported that deputies located the wreckage along the shores of Summit Lake, but the rescue was foiled by fire and the remoteness of the location. Sheriff Derek Sanders described one moment when the thermal heat from the fire was so intense that it began warming up responders’ boots, leading them to call for the deployment of special operations rescue units and even a King County helicopter to aid them. As quoted by Sheriff Sanders, “Deputies have located the crash site but are unable to make any further rescue attempts since the scene is on fire and is starting to warm up their boots.”.
The military is not releasing casualty information, and the investigation has just begun. An Army spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Allie Scott, stated that the area where the plane crashed was difficult to access due to dense forest and countryside. The Federal Aviation Administration has reported that the military is handling the investigation.
It’s not the first crash. The air force of the army has been under serious scrutiny following a string of deadly accidents. A Fort Belvoir UH-60 Black Hawk crashed into a commercial aircraft near Reagan National Airport last year and killed three Army pilots as well as 64 civilians. That accident was attributed to congested air traffic controllers, communication failure, and technical issues with the internal systems of the Black Hawk. In February, helicopters were grounded by the National Guard after two mishaps in two weeks: one in Utah, injuring two pilots, and another in Mississippi, killing two. Two Black Hawks crashed in 2023 in Kentucky and killed nine soldiers, and two Apaches collided with each other in Alaska, killing three more.
These accidents have precipitated stand-downs, safety audits, and frequent calls for enhanced training and regulation. The Army responded with 24-hour stand-downs and retraining, but the risk still lurks around every bend for those who fly and maintain these advanced machines.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord is, in turn, a strategic military outpost for the United States on the West Coast. Formed from the merger of Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base, JBLM is an international deployment springboard, with access to deep-water ports and large airports. It is home to I Corps and the 62nd Airlift Wing, and is thus an Army and Air Force nerve center.
With the investigation ongoing, the JBLM crash is a chilling reminder of the dangers to military pilots—even on training missions. For the Night Stalkers and other Army aviators, each flight is a high-risk operation, and each accident a reminder to maintain readiness without sacrificing safety.