Navy copter crashes into ocean, 3 bodies found
5/20/2009SAN DIEGO Bodies were found Wednesday of three of the five crew members who were aboard a Navy helicopter that crashed into the ocean southwest of San Diego, military officials said.
Rescue teams continued looking for the other two crew members, said Navy Lt. Karen Burzynski.
The SH60 Seahawk helicopter, from Carrier Air Wing 11, had taken off from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz as part of a training exercise before it went into the sea late Tuesday.
There was no information Wednesday on a possible cause, and the names of the crew members were not released.
The crews of Coast Guard and Navy helicopters and of boats from several agencies had joined the search for the missing. The site is off the northwest Mexican coast, near the Coronado Islands.
The training exercises had involved the Nimitz and a half-dozen other ships in its strike group.
It wasn t immediately clear if the Seahawk was equipped with a flight data recorder. Such devices, which record air speed, altitude, pitch and engine power, aren t required in many military aircraft.