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.