Eleven people on board an Army Black Hawk that went down in seas around Florida on March 10 are considered dead and focus is now on recovery instead of rescue efforts, the U.S. Air Force has announced.

Col. Monte Cannon of the U.S. Air Force said the military had its eye on the recovery of the helicopter from the bottom of the Santa Rosa Sound and the bodies of all four Louisiana National Guard members and seven Marines who were on board.

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Cannon added investigators would try to determine why the aircraft crashed in foggy conditions during a training exercise on Tuesday last week.

A search and rescue mission coordinator of the U.S. Coast Guard, Layne Carter, said rescuers have suspended active search and rescue efforts and their thoughts are with the family and friends of all those involved in the crash.

Responders have recovered the bodies of at least two National Guard personnel while those of the others could have ended up in the helicopter's undersea wreckage, which is 25 feet below the surface.

Military officials could not say how many bodies were still missing and did not identify the service members involved in the crash.

Two Black Hawks were on a training mission around Eglin when heavy fog rolled and one of them went down in the sound, a strip of water between north Florida and a barrier island.

Several military vessels were already in the seas for back up but the heavy fog made a rescue impossible, the fire chief of Eglin Air Force Base, Mark Giulano, said.

The second helicopter managed to make it to base, dozens of kilometers east of Pensacola.

Earlier this week, Eglin spokesman Andy Bourland said whatever problems there where with the first aircraft did not involve the second helicopter that was taking part in the exercise.