U.S. Navy recovers Seahawk, remains of five, from mile-deep ocean

[Boats]

U.S. Navy recovers Seahawk, remains of five, from mile-deep ocean
By: Dan Parsons - Vertical Mag News - 10-14-21
Re: https://verticalmag.com/news/us-navy...le-deep-ocean/

The U.S. Navy has raised the wreckage of a crashed MH-60S Seahawk, and the remains of five sailors killed when it went down in August, from more than a mile beneath the Pacific Ocean.

The wreckage and remains were recovered Oct. 8, from a depth of 5,300 feet (1,615 meters) by a team from the Naval Sea Systems Command’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV) aboard multi-purpose service vessel HOS Bayou, according to a NAVSEA statement released Oct. 12.

Photo link: https://assets.verticalmag.com/wp-co.../09/530446.jpg
An MH-60S Seahawk helicopter assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 12 on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln during a replenishment at sea. U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Christina I. Naranjo

One crew member aboard the Seahawk was pulled from the ocean offshore of San Diego, California, on Aug. 31 after the aircraft hit the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and plummeted overboard. The helicopter was conducting routine flight operations from the ship’s deck about 60 nautical miles offshore when the incident occurred. Five other sailors aboard the Lincoln were injured in the incident. Two of the five were transported ashore for treatment. The other three were treated for “minimal injuries” aboard the ship.

Navy and U.S. Coast Guard helicopters and ships searched for the remaining five sailors for three days before transitioning from a rescue to a recovery operation. The Navy declared all five sailors dead on Sept. 4.

“The transition from search-and-rescue efforts to recovery operations comes after more than 72 hours of coordinated rescue efforts encompassing 34 search and rescue flights, over 170 hours of flight time, with five search helicopters and constant surface vessel search,” the Navy said in a statement.

With the recovered wreckage aboard, the Bayou arrived at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego on Oct. 10 and transferred the remains recovered from the crash to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, for identification.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

This was the second Seahawk the Navy’s SUPSALV has recovered from the floor of the Pacific Ocean in 2021. In March, another MH-60S was pulled up from a record depth of 19,075 feet (5,814 meters), or 3.6 miles beneath the surface.

That helicopter crashed into the Pacific Ocean off of Okinawa, Japan, in 2020 while operating from the amphibious command ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19). The aircrew was able to escape the MH-60S before it sank, and no lives were lost in the accident.