CORONADOCORONADO — Six crew aboard a Navy helicopter avoided critical injuries Thursday night when their aircraft plummeted into San Diego Bay during a training exercise, military officials said.
The MH-60R Sea Hawk based at Naval Air Station North Island crashed into the water around 6:40 p.m. just off Navy Amphibious Base Coronado, said Cmdr. Beth Teach, a spokesperson for U.S. Naval Air Forces.
The two pilots and four aircrew on board were conducting day-into-night search and rescue training, which included dropping the aircrew into the water as rescue swimmers, before it crashed, she said.
The crew , from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 41, were able to extract themselves from the helicopter, Teach said.
“Pilots and crew are given robust swim and survival training as part of their earliest qualifications in helicopters,” Teach said. “They learn how to quickly and as safely as possible egress a downed aircraft, even underwater. They are trained to navigate that challenge.”
Because of the type of training involved, a safety boat was already on location, she said. With assistance from Federal Fire Department San Diego, all six crew were pulled from the water.
A Coast Guard helicopter was sent to assist, Coast Guard Petty Officer Adam Stanton said.
Teach described the crew’s prognosis as “good,” saying all had avoided critical or life-threatening injuries. One crew member remained hospitalized Friday for observation while all others have been released, she said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation. The Navy will work to determine why and how the crash occurred, as well as find ways to prevent a similar incident.
Navy officials are now working to figure out how to salvage the sunken copter, Teach said.
On Friday, divers from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit THREE completed an early assessment of the wreckage.
“Initial reports indicate the body of the aircraft remains intact, the rotor blade created minimal debris, and no fuel leaks were observed,” Teach said. “As a precaution, the Navy placed a fuel containment boom around the crash site.”
The MH-60R Sea Hawk, deployed in 2006, is the Navy’s primary anti-submarine and surface warfare helicopter for land or maritime operations, according to the Navy.
Dubbed the Seahawks, Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 41 consists of “a team of dedicated professional maintainers, instructors, and istrative and personnel who carry out our mission each day to provide the most highly trained professional Aviators and Aircrewmen to our deploying fleet squadrons,” the Navy said in a statement.
Two previous crashes in recent years involved a different helicopter model, the MH-60S. Five sailors from Naval Air Station North Island were killed in August 2021 when their MH-60S rolled off the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln while at sea in the Pacific Ocean. A damaged component in the aircraft’s rotor was determined to be the cause, according to a Navy investigation. In June 2022, a North Island crew was injured when a MH-60S crashed during training in the Imperial Valley desert. It was not immediately clear if a cause has been determined for that crash.
