Wednesday, March 11, 2015

MILITARY HELICOPTER CRASHES IN FLORIDA DURING TRAINING EXERCISES; 7 MARINES, 4 SOLDIERS MISSING





MARCH 11, 2015

At least seven Marines and four soldiers are missing Wednesday after an Army helicopter (a UH-60 Blackhawk) crashed during a night training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle.

Eglin spokesman Andy Bourland said the Marines are part of a Camp Lejeune-based special operations group and the soldiers are from a Hammond, Louisiana-based National Guard unit.

The helicopter was reported missing around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and search and rescue crews found debris from the crash around 2 a.m. Wednesday, Bourland said.

The helicopter went down during a routine training mission on a remote swath of beach between Pensacola and Destin. The beach is owned by the military and is used for test missions.

The incident follows a helicopter crash on Tuesday in Argentina where a number of French nationals — several of them Olympic athletes — were killed.

Bourland said it was too soon to say what caused the crash, but that there were "weather issues" overnight.

"This is search and rescue," he stressed, adding that visibility was limited due to darkness and fog. "We have not declared the status of the 11 personnel on board at the time." 

Search and rescue teams have located some debris which began to collect in the search area, Bourland added.