(NCS) — Two US crew members have been “safely rescued” after a US Army Apache helicopter went down off the coast of Oman, the US navy confirmed early Tuesday.
“The Soldiers were safely rescued within approximately two hours and are in stable condition. The cause of the incident is under investigation,” US Central Command, the navy department answerable for operations in the Middle East, mentioned in a post on X.
The loss of the plane marks the first loss of an Apache since the battle with Iran started. It comes after hostilities in the area escalated over the weekend, with Iran and Israel exchanging their first direct strikes in months late Sunday.
The US navy mentioned the helicopter went down “while patrolling regional waters.”
US President Donald Trump commented on the incident in a single day, saying “the pilots are fine” after being requested by reporters a few report {that a} US Army helicopter went down close to the Strait of Hormuz.
“The pilots are fine, nobody injured,” Trump advised reporters in New York after attending Monday night time’s NBA Finals sport.
US CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Timothy Hawkins mentioned a US Navy floor drone “found and rescued the crew from the water.”
The New York Times was first to report {that a} US Army Apache helicopter went down close to the strait on Monday, and that two crew members needed to be rescued.
The helicopters have beforehand been used to assault Iranian small boats as half of the US blockade of Iranian ports.
Apache helicopters are primarily used for precision strikes, shut air help, and air reconnaissance, in response to the Central Command web site.
The US navy has misplaced dozens of plane –– together with no less than 5 fighter jets, seven Stratotanker refueling plane, a search-and-rescue helicopter and extra then two dozens drones –– since the conflict with Iran started in late February, in response to a Congressional Research Service report issued in May.
In early April, the US navy needed to launch a dangerous operation to rescue one of the pilots of a F-15E Strike Eagle that was shot down inside Iran. The navy needed to blow up two of its personal particular operations plane on the floor in Iran throughout the covert mission, which concerned a whole lot of American navy and intelligence personnel, together with particular operations forces.
In March, a KC-135 Stratotanker refueling plane crashed in western Iraq, killing all six crew members onboard. And days earlier, three US F-15 fighter jets have been mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses, with all crew members ejecting safely.
A quantity of plane have been broken in Iranian strikes on a US airbase in Saudi Arabia, whereas different plane sustained injury after coming beneath Iranian fireplace whereas they have been in the air.
This story has been up to date with further info.
The-NCS-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
NCS’s Kaanita Iyer and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.