5 Sailors Declared Dead In San Diego Helicopter Crash

San Diego CA

04 September, 2021

1:12 PM

Description

SAN DIEGO, CA — Five crewmembers of a Tuesday helicopter crash off the coast of San Diego were declared dead on Saturday, the U.S. Navy announced. The Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron, flying an MH-60S helicopter, was conducting a routine flight operation from USS Abraham Lincoln when the aircraft crashed into the sea roughly 60 nautical miles off the coast of San Diego at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Officials shifted to a recovery operation after spending three days coordinating search and rescue efforts to find the sailors. Service members spent more than 170 hours of flight time and mobilized crews by air and sea to find the five missing sailors before declaring them dead. The identities of the sailors were not released by the Navy and will be withheld until their next of kin have been notified. On Tuesday, one sailor aboard the MH-60S Knighthawk was pulled from the ocean after the aircraft went down while its six-member crew engaged in routine flight operations off the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, according to USN public affairs. The rescued sailor and two others who were hurt in the accident while aboard the San Diego-based aircraft carrier were taken ashore for medical care in stable condition. Another three personnel suffered minor injuries and remained on the ship, officials said. A military investigation is underway into what caused the crash of the aircraft, which was assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 8 at Naval Air Station North Island. Navy officials said only that it "was operating on deck before crashing into the sea." City News Service and Patch staffer Mark Nero contributed to this report.