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11/22/2024 04:55:25 am

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Divers Recover Missing Black Hawk Chopper In Florida

Black Hawk Chopper

(Photo : REUTERS / US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Mark El-Rayes / Handout via Reuters ) A U.S. Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter lands on the flight deck of the amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry in the Arabian Gulf in a December 26, 2013 handout photograph.

Divers have recovered on Thursday the Black Hawk helicopter with 11 Marines and four National Guards. The chopper crashed on Tuesday off the Florida Pandhandle, according to Louisiana National Guard officials.

The US-60 chopper was in several pieces on the bottom of Santa Rosa Sound. The divers found the aircraft at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

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Recovering the 11 bodies was made difficult by the heavy fog that covered the area.

There were two Black Hawks that participated in the training exercise. One went missing and the other came back without any untoward incident.

Several agencies were involved in the search mission, with the Eglin Fire Department as the lead agency, reports the Daily Beast.

On Wednesday, despite the Pentagon not publicizing the identities of the seven Marines and four Army National Guardsmen who were in a chopper that crashed on Tuesday off the coast of Florida, the families of the soldiers knew who they were.

Mickayla Volker of Jacksonville said these Marines and Guardsmen who are feared dead are their husbands, brothers, sisters, fathers or significant others. She hinted then they have a feeling that the 11 will not be coming home anymore, reports Charlotte Observer.

The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flew at around 8:30 p.m. for a nighttime training exercise on Tuesday. The next morning, the search team found debris from the missing chopper in Santa Rosa Sound, located southwest of Pensacola. In the afternoon, the team reportedly found human remains.

The Marine, from the Marine Corps Special Operations, were stationed at Camp Lejeune, together with their families, while the National Guards were based in Hammond, Louisiana.

Since Sunday, the Marines were in Florida Panhandle where they were assigned to stay for one week while practicing loading cargo into choppers and dropping it off, said Marine Corps Special Operations Command spokesman Sgt. Lia Gamero.

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