A Navy dive and salvage group has recovered the our bodies of three troopers and the Army MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter they had been in that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in November, the service introduced Thursday.
“Everybody onboard was humbled by the chance to play a small position in serving to to convey closure to grieving households,” Cmdr. John Kennedy, the Navy officer main the duty group answerable for the hassle, stated within the Thursday press launch.
In line with the Army’s Particular Operations Command, which additionally launched an announcement Thursday, the plane was recovered on Dec. 15 and the stays of three troopers that had been aboard had been flown to Dover Air Drive Base, Delaware, for identification. Two others died when the helicopter crashed, however their stays had been discovered within the fast aftermath of the accident.
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The five-soldier crew was a part of the Army’s Particular Operations Command and assigned to 1st Battalion, one hundred and sixtieth Particular Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne). The Black Hawk was conducting aerial refueling coaching when “the plane skilled an in-flight emergency, ensuing within the crash,” the Army stated.
The crash occurred amid a U.S. power buildup in response to Hamas’ brutal terror assault on Israeli civilians and the next Israeli navy response in Gaza.
On the time, a senior protection official would not say whether or not the Army particular operations unit was within the space to help Israel however did say that it was “there in response to the dynamic safety surroundings within the area.” A press release from U.S. European Command additionally harassed that “the plane sortie was purely associated to coaching and there are not any indications of hostile exercise.”
The Navy used specialists from its Supervisor of Salvage and Diving command, in addition to sailors from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Cellular Unit 8 and troopers from the Army’s Particular Operations Aviation Command, within the search, the Navy’s assertion stated. The group contracted a multipurpose vessel, the NG Employee, and proceeded to the crash website on Dec. 8.
“As soon as on station, extremely expert operators positioned and recovered the plane utilizing state-of-the-art underwater survey and restoration gear mounted on the Deep Drone distant operated automobile,” the Navy stated in its assertion.
Though neither assertion famous the depth of the sunken helicopter, the Deep Drone used within the effort has a most working depth of 8,000 ft.
The Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving is routinely referred to as in to get better plane and different objects that sink to the underside of the ocean. In March 2022, the command recovered a F-35C Lightning II fighter that had crashed into the deck of the plane provider USS Carl Vinson a number of months prior earlier than sliding off and sinking greater than 12,000 ft into the South China Sea.
The command additionally supplied gear and experience to the large rescue-and-recovery effort of the Titan — a personal submersible that imploded whereas conducting a dive to the wreck of the Titanic.
The victims of the crash are Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38, of Clarksville, Tennessee; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento, California; Employees Sgt. Tanner W. Grone, 26, of Gorham, New Hampshire; Sgt. Andrew P. Southard, 27, of Apache Junction, Arizona; and Sgt. Cade M. Wolfe, 24, of Mankato, Minnesota.
Neither the Navy nor Army provided the identities of the three troopers who had been recovered as a part of the salvage effort. The Navy cited pending next-of-kin notification as the rationale.
The stays of two troopers had been recovered throughout preliminary search-and-recovery efforts in November.
Army Particular Operations Command stated that the reason for the crash continues to be being investigated.
— Konstantin Toropin might be reached at konstantin.toropin@navy.com. Comply with him on X at @ktoropin.
Associated: Army Identifies 5 Particular Operations Troopers Killed in Black Hawk Crash in Mediterranean Sea
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