A military helicopter has crashed in Egypt as militants continue to target security forces in the country.

Mohamed Samir, a spokesperson for the armed forces, said the helicopter went down on the desert road from Ismailia to Cairo at 9.25am (7.25am GMT) today.

He said it was conducting a surveillance mission when a “technical malfunction” caused it to suddenly lose altitude in a rural area in Giza governate.

A Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade "Screaming Eagles" based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky was on a routine training mission when it went down about 12 miles south of Fort Campbell. The helicopter caught fire after it crashed.

A four-wheel drive mini-pumper from the St. Bethlehem Volunteer Fire Department doused the fire.

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NEW DELHI: India's horrific crash rate of fighters may grab all the eyeballs, but ageing helicopter fleets are an equally big worry. As many as 30 military helicopters have crashed since 2010, claiming well over 50 lives. And these are just the Category-I crashes, with pilots continuing to grapple with technical problems in their old helicopters almost on a daily basis.

Ageing machines, inadequate pilot training, shoddy maintenance and spares support have all come together to lead to a high crash rate of fighters and helicopters over the years in India. Stating that the main reasons for the accidents were "technical defects" and "human errors" in a written reply in Rajya Sabha, defence minister minister Manohar Parrikar put the tally of helicopter crashes at 28 since 2010.

Two Russian-origin Mi-17 helicopters had also crashed during relief operations and aid to civil agencies in 2011-2012 and 2013-14, which are generally not included in the statistics maintained for aircraft accidents in the forces. IAF, in fact, has lost at least five of its heavy-duty Mi-17 choppers since 2011.

The U.S. Army on Thursday grounded aircraft for active duty aviators at 11 posts across the country following a series of deadly crashes in recent weeks.

According to a release from the U.S. Army Forces Command, the order "will permit Army aviation leaders specific time to review Army aviation-training procedures and helicopter-safety precautions to manage risk, and to avoid accidental loss of aviation personnel and equipment."

Gen. Robert B. Abrams said in the release that the "decision to ground our aircraft today is taken with the utmost seriousness and my responsibility as the Commander of U.S. Army Forces Command."

"I have a duty to ensure that we are doing all that we can to prevent loss of life and aviation accidents," Gen. Abrams said, "and that is why we're standing down to review our procedures and reaffirm our commitment to operating our aircraft safely and effectively. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the soldiers who died recently in these accidents."

There has been a string of fatal helicopter crashes during training missions over the last few weeks.