Two US Army pilots killed in helicopter crash

Los Angeles: Two US Army pilots were killed in a helicopter crash in the California desert during a routine training exercise.

"Both the pilot and the co-pilot were killed on Saturday and the cause is currently under investigation," Lt. Col. Jason S. Brown, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon said.

The crashed AH-64 Apache gunship was attached to the Army's 4th Infantry Division based out of Fort Carson, Colorado, the report said.

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It was flying to the National Training Centre at Fort Irwin in California, 240 km northeast of Los Angeles, for a regular training rotation.

The fatal accident occurred hours after the US government shutdown and it marked the first known deadly crash for the US military in 2018.

As many as 37 US troops were lost in crashes of military non-combat planes flying routine operations till November in 2017, according to an investigation report of Fox.