7 Marines, 4 Soldiers Presumed Dead After Helicopter Crashes Near Eglin Air Force Base (UPDATE)
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AP) — Seven Marines and 4 soldiers aboard an Army helicopter that crashed over waters off Florida during a slight night training goal were reputed passed Wednesday, and crews found tellurian stays notwithstanding complicated haze hampering hunt efforts, troops officials said.
A Pentagon central pronounced all 11 use members were reputed passed and that a Coast Guard found waste in a water. The central spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity given a central wasn’t certified to pronounce on a record.
Human stays had cleared ashore, though crews still deliberate it a search-and-rescue mission, pronounced Sara Vidoni, a troops mouthpiece for Eglin Air Force Base, outward Pensacola.
The helicopter — a UH-60 Black Hawk from a Army National Guard — was reported blank around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, and crews found waste around 2 a.m., pronounced Andy Bourland, a orator for Eglin Air Force Base, outward Pensacola.
Much of a area was enveloped in haze from Tuesday dusk to Wednesday morning, pronounced Katie Moore with a National Weather Service in Tallahassee. Much of that time, a prominence was during dual miles or less, she said.
The haze combined low prominence even as a object came up, and a area was underneath a haze advisory.
Local law coercion agencies vehicles collected Wednesday during a pile-up scene, circuitously a remote swath of beach between Pensacola and Destin. The beach is owned by a military, and as partial of a Eglin base, it is used for exam missions.
Vidoni pronounced a hunt was focused on a Santa Rosa Sound, a slight current separating Santa Rosa Island from Florida’s mainland.
From a beach, hunt boats could be listened blustering horns as they combed a H2O though could not be seen by a fog. The Coast Guard had cumulative a waterways, Vidoni said.
Base officials pronounced a Marines were partial of a Camp Lejeune, North Carolina-based special operations group. The soldiers were from a Hammond, Louisiana-based National Guard unit. Names of those concerned were not immediately released, tentative presentation of subsequent of kin, Bourland said.
Bourland pronounced a Army helicopter took off from a circuitously airfield in Destin and assimilated other aircraft in a training exercise.
The training area includes 20 miles of primitive beachfront that has been underneath a control of a troops given before World War II. Military troops keep a tighten watch on a area and have been famous to run off private vendors who lease jet skis or paddle play but permission.
Test operation manager Glenn Barndollar told The AP in Aug that a beach provides an ideal training area for special operations units from all branches of a troops to use over a water, on a beach and in a bay.
The troops infrequently drops trainees over a H2O regulating boats or helicopters and a trainees contingency make their approach onshore.
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BREAKING: Military official: 11 use members blank in helicopter pile-up in Florida reputed dead.
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 11, 2015
Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/11/7-marines-4-soldiers-missing-helicopter-crash_n_6845198.html?utm_hp_ref=miami&ir=Miami