The non-explosive training missile is five feet long and weighs 100 pounds. It was built to resemble a Hellfire missile.
The helicopter lost it sometime Friday morning during a flight from Fort Drum in Jefferson County to Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, Orange County, Army officials told Syracuse.com.
In an effort to recover the lost missile, other Apache helicopters have retraced the flight path of the first, said an Army spokesperson at Fort Drum, in Upstate New York.
The missile, an M36 Captive Flight Training Missile, is not dangerous to the public because it is not explosive or motorized, Fort Drum officials assured. It is typically attached to the helicopter to simulate the weight of a missile during flight.
The Army does not know how the missile separated from the helicopter, since it cannot be dropped or fired from the chopper like a live Hellfire missile.
