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WEST JORDAN — Utah National Guard officials say one of the pilots injured in an Apache helicopter crash on Monday has been released from the hospital.
The crash happened about 1:20 p.m. Monday at the South Valley Regional Airport in West Jordan, where the National Guard's aviation facility is housed, according to Lt. Col. Chris Kroeber, spokesman for the Guard. The pilots, who weren't named, were treated at the scene by medical personnel and subsequently taken to a hospital for treatment.
In a statement Tuesday, the National Guard said one of the pilots was able to go home Monday around 6 p.m. The other pilot was still at the hospital Tuesday but said to be "stable."
Kroeber said the two pilots aboard the two-seat AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter — a Guard instructor pilot and an Air Force pilot — were on what he called a "familiarization flight" when the crash happened. He thinks the pilots were conducting different types of landings, but he didn't know what happened that led to the crash.
"They were conducting some training activities out there. It's just a routine training mission," Kroeber said Monday.
Investigators with the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center in Fort Novosel, Alabama, were coming to the area Tuesday to begin an investigation into the incident.