A day and a half after an Army UH-60 Black Hawk crashed in waters near Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, with 11 troops aboard, officials say they are no longer hopeful for survivors.
In a late morning press conference outside the base, Air Force Col. Monte Cannon, vice commander of the 96th Test Wing, said operations continue ed in what wais now officially a recovery effort.
Seven North Carolina-based Marines with Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command and four Louisiana National Guard crew members were aboard the helicopter during chopper conducting night training when it went down amid dense fog conditions around 8:30 Tuesday night. Wreckage, debris and reportedly human remains washed up over the course of the following day, but until now the response effort was still considered a search-and-rescue.
The wWreckage of the downed helo was had been located underwater Wednesday afternoon with the aid of sonar, said Mark Giuliano, Giuliana, fire chief commander at Eglin. A diver verified the aircraft from a depth of 25 feet, he said.
While human remains have been pulled from the water, Cannon said they are not identifying the fallen Marines and soldiers or providing information about how many victims they are still in the process of recovering.
"We have retrieved remains, that's all I can tell you at this point," he said. "We have the Armed Forces Medical Examiner out there right now, and he's working that."
Shortly after the press conference, the Louisiana Guard confirmed that two of the four soldiers involved in the crash are dead and their remains recovered.
The other two soldiers are believed to be in the wreckage, but that cannot be confirmed until a civilian salvage unit is able to recover the aircraft, the Guard officials said.
All four soldiers were assigned to the 1-244th Assault Helicopter Battalion in Hammond, Louisiana.
"We are heartbroken. We are shocked," said Army Maj. Gen. Glenn Curtis, the adjutant general of the Louisiana Guard, in a statement. "But we are a team ... standing together for the families and for each other."
While the cause of the tragedy remains under investigation, Giuliano said the wreckage indicates it was a high-impact crash. Bystanders, he said, reported hearing a loud bang around the reported time of the crash, he said.
Both officials also said the dense fog, which continued into Thursday s today in the region, has hampered recovery efforts and severely limited visibility. While additional Coast Guard assets are en route, they will likely not be able to assist begin assisting with the recovery effort until Friday tomorrow.
As the response transitions to recovery, the effort will bey led by officials from the Army Combat Readiness Center and assisted by MARSOC arine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, officials said.
"That transition is ongoing at this time," Cannon said. "At this point our thoughts and prayers go out ... to the family and friends of all involved in this tragic event."
Neither the Army nor the Marine Corps has yet released the names of the troops aboard the downed helo chopper.
Staff writer Michelle Tan contributed to this report.
