11 presumed dead in military helicopter crash

NAVARRE BEACH, Fla. — Seven Marines and four crewmembers are missing and presumed dead Wednesday after an Army helicopter crashed during a training exercise off the Florida Panhandle.

But rescue personnel are poised to search as long as necessary for the missing men, officials confirmed late Wednesday.

The area was under a fog advisory when the crash occurred Tuesday night near Eglin Air Force Base about 50 miles east of Pensacola. The extreme fog still present Wednesday morning impeded the search, grounding a Coast Guard helicopter until about 1 p.m. CT.

"We're still in search and rescue mode," Maj. Gen. Glenn Curtis, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, said in a news conference in Hammond, La., the New Orleans suburb where the National Guard unit has its headquarters.

The search will continue through the night, Elgin spokesman Mike Spaits said.

"There is always room for optimism," he said. "The fog has been hampering our search efforts, and more fog is continuing to roll in."

One large piece of the helicopter has washed up on shore. Officials also reported finding some remains of victims, but no official count of the deceased was released and their names also were not released pending notification of family.

The Associated Press and CNN are among media outlets reporting that all 11 are presumed dead, citing military sources. Curtis said that Eglin officials will determine when the efforts strictly become a recovery operation.

The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was thought to have crashed in the Santa Rosa Sound somewhere within a 13-mile stretch of Santa Rosa Island that Eglin uses for training, Spaits said. The military has controlled this section beach since World War II, and it is used for test missions.

"Our main effort right now is getting our soldiers and Marines back — and taking care of our families," Curtis said. Officials arrived at the homes of affected troops in the morning to tell family members about the crash.

The Marines are part of a Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based special operations group. Both the Marines and Guardsmen were in Florida on temporary assignment.

More than 100 search personnel from multiple agencies, including the Coast Guard, converged on the area, centering on a 51-square-mile area of the Santa Rosa Sound between the barrier island and the mainland. A Coast Guard vessel overnight had recovered debris, including the downed chopper's tail rotor, officials told NBC News.

Fog, which may have contributed to the helicopter crash, had virtually grounded all Air Force flights out of the base all morning and created visibility of less than 2 miles. Airmen have been searching the shoreline on foot and divers are being used to locate the accident site.

When the helicopter's black box is located, it will become a key part of the military's investigation into the crash, officials said.

"It's like England out here," said Pastor Jon Skipper of the Navarre First Assembly of God, where most of the congregation is active duty and retired service members. "This is the foggiest place you've ever seen in your life."

The helicopter was reported missing around 8:30 p.m. CT Tuesday during a night training mission, and search and rescue crews who started around 1 a.m. Wednesday found debris from the crash about a half hour later, Eglin spokesman Andy Bourland said.

A second helicopter participating in the exercise decided to turn back and returned to the base safely, Curtis said. Both aircraft were assigned to the 1-244th Assault Helicopter Battalion in Hammond.

Training in adverse conditions is not unusual for military personnel, Spaits said.

"They train as they fight," he said.

It was unclear exactly when the second helicopter's decision to turn back was made or whether that was communicated to the crew in the helicopter that crashed, Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana Guard said.

Tuesday night's training involved practicing "insertion and extraction missions," using small boats and helicopters to get troops into and out of a target site, said Capt. Barry Morris, spokesman for the Marine Corps Special Operations Command at Camp Lejeune. The exercise, which was set to end Sunday, has been paused.

Guardsmen on the missing helicopter had two tours of duty overseas during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, their unit rescued residents during hurricanes Katrina and Rita and they participated in other missions inside and outside Louisiana, Curtis said.

"They were integral after Katrina and saved thousands of lives," he said.

Both pilots in the downed helicopter were highly qualified instructors, Curtis said. The entire four-man Black Hawk crew had several thousand hours of flight time in the aircraft.

The Black Hawks are considered the Army's workhorse helicopter for transporting troops and gear. Other recent military helicopter crashes happened during the war in Afghanistan:

• On Dec. 17, 2013, six U.S. troops died in a UH-60 Black Hawk crash in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province.

• On March 11, 2013, a Black Hawk crashed near the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan, killing all five U.S. troops aboard.

• On Aug. 16, 2012, seven U.S. troops and four Afghans died after another Black Hawk crashed in Kandahar province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for shooting down that helicopter.

This may be the largest number of U.S. military air fatalities since Aug. 6, 2011, when 30 American troops and eight Afghans died after the Taliban shot down a CH-47 Chinook helicopter crash in Afghanistan's Wardak province.

Tuesday's incident follows a helicopter crash earlier Tuesday in Argentina where a number of French nationals, including several Olympic athletes, were killed.

President Barack Obama expressed his condolences Wednesday to victims' family members and conveyed his appreciation for the sacrifices U.S. troops have made, according to the White House.

"These soldiers represent the best of Louisiana, and we are praying for them and their families." Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said in a statement.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said he hopes to visit the crash site, about 7 miles from his Fort Walton office.

Residents of Navarre, on the mainland, had a candlelight vigil for the missing at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, 24 hours after the helicopter went missing.

"I feel like that would be the perfect time to light them tonight," said James Blackwood of Navarre, who organized the observance. "I just wanted to be able to show the families that we're here for them, that we are proud of our military, that their sacrifice did not go unnoticed in our community."

A woman who lives and works at a campground near the crash said she heard something strange about the time the chopper was reported missing.

"It sounded like something metal either being hit or falling over. That's what it sounded like," said Kim Urr, 62, who said she and a friend are used to hearing helicopters and ordnance blasts from the nearby military base, but this sound was different. "There were two booms afterward, similar to what you hear with ordnance booms, but more muffled."

Contributing: Garin Flowers and Anne Schindler, WTLV- and WJXX-TV, Jacksonville, Fla.; Hope Hodge Seck, Marine Corps Times; Kaysee Lagarde, Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal; Kim Hjelmgaard, William M. Welch and Donovan Slack, USA TODAY; The Associated Press