On your list of weird starts to wildland fires, you can now add military helicopter accidents.
An aviation mishap involving an Army AH-64E Apache occurred in Grant County, Washington about 4:30 p.m. on the evening of September 29.
The helicopter was assigned to 4-6 Air Cavalry Squadron, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade during a training exercise near Beverly, and it struck powerlines over the river and had to make a hard landing.
Both pilots are okay; they were returned to the Yakima Training Center for medical evaluation. The accident caused a small fire near the Columbia River, according to KREM 2 in Spokane.
State Route 243 was closed at Milepost 18 for less than an hour as a result of the incident. Later in the evening, lines were reportedly still down in the river.
Apache after Columbia River incident — Grant County Sheriff photoThe Grant County Sheriff’s Office provided initial information. “Army helicopter made a hard landing after striking power lines over the Columbia River,” they said. “Crew is OK.”