Navy Helicopter Crashes 20 Miles off Va., Rescue Ongoing

MarineLink.com January 8, 2014

An MH-53E Sea Dragon assigned to Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15, launches from the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu. Peleliu is the flagship for the Peleliu Strike Group and is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility to conduct maritime security operations. (A stock photo of a MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter taken in 2008.)

The Coast Guard is responding to a Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter that crashed with five people aboard Wednesday approximately 20 miles east of Cape Henry, Va.

A Navy aircrew contacted Coast Guard 5th District Command Center watchstanders at approximately 11 a.m. reporting the Sea Dragon crashed and another Navy aircrew dropped a life raft to the people in the water.

Sector watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and dispatched acrew aboard a 25-foot Response Boat - Small from Coast Guard Station Little Creek and diverted the Coast Guard Cutter Shearwater, an 87-foot patrol boat homeported in Portsmouth to assist.

At approximately 11:45 a.m., two Navy aircrews hoisted four people from the water and took them to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

The Coast Guard is searching for the fifth crewmember from the Sea Dragon.

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