CORONADO (CNS) – Two soldiers were killed and three others were hurt during an Army aircraft training off the coast of San Diego, it was reported Friday.

The incident happened Thursday evening, a U.S. Army public affairs officer confirmed.

FOX 5 news partner San Diego Union-Tribune reports the soldiers were on a Blackhawk helicopter when it crashed on San Clemente Island.

A Defense Department official told the newspaper that the accident involved members of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

An Army public affairs officer said in a statement: “An element of U.S. Army Special Operations Command was conducting routine training in the vicinity of Coronado, California, on August 27, when an aircraft incident occurred. Two Soldiers were killed and three were injured. The area has been secured and an investigation into the incident is underway. More information will be released 24-hours following next of kin notification. Our sincere condolences got out to the families and friends of the deceased. We thank you for not contacting them during this difficult time.”

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The Army now has more four-star generals serving on active duty than the Army and Air Force combined had during World War II.

Army Col. Christopher Coglianese, the chief of Future Operations at Army Futures Command, tweeted this month about the milestone, which the service has only hit once in the past.

“Last time we had that rank density was April 1945, when we had four five-stars and 13 four-stars,” Coglianese said, adding pointing out that at that time the Air Force was known as the U.S. Army Air Force.

In addition to Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Martin, the Army has five four-stars running Army Forces Command, Army Training and Doctrine Command, Army Materiel Command, Army Futures Command and Army Pacific Command.

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A pair of Russian fighters conducted an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept of a U.S. B-52 Stratofortress bomber over the Black Sea Friday, the U.S. Air Force said in a statement Saturday.

The service said that two Russian Su-27 Flankers “flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner while crossing within 100 feet of the nose of the B-52 multiple times at co-altitude and while in afterburner causing turbulence and restricting the B-52’s ability to maneuver.”

The U.S. military released the video of the incident.

Gen. Jeff Harrigian, the U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa commander, said in a statement that “actions like these increase the potential for midair collisions, are unnecessary, and inconsistent with good airmanship and international flight rules.”

He added that the Russian aircraft “jeopardized the safety of flight of the aircraft involved.”

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In a narrow decision, the U.S. military’s top appeals court has upheld a conviction against former Army Sgt. Robert “Bowe” Bergdahl on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, saying public comments by President Donald Trump and the late Sen. John McCain condemning the soldier did not invalidate his prosecution.

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces handed down a decision Thursday on the sentence, which was delivered in 2017 and has already been upheld at the lower appellate level. All five appellate judges on the case agreed at least in part on the conclusion, but two judges filed partial dissents expressing their dismay at the viciousness with which Bergdahl was treated and the conduct of the leaders in question.

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