Helo with five onboard missing in Arizona

Helo with five onboard missing in Arizona
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Aug 17, 2007 13:24:09 EDT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Marine aircraft were continuing a search Aug. 17 in Arizona for an HH-1N Huey search-and-rescue helicopter carrying four Marines and one sailor that went missing the previous afternoon, a Marine Corps spokesman said.

The helicopter, which belongs to Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., was returning to the air station about 4 p.m. after a “routine training” flight, said Sgt. Ryan O’Hare, a station spokesman.

“It has been confirmed that it has crashed,” O’Hare said, but he added that officials don’t know its condition, and searchers have not pinpointed an exact location.

Border Patrol and Air Force aircraft from Luke Air Force Base joined the station’s other SAR helicopters in the search, O’Hare said. The helicopter crew was training at Yuma Proving Ground, in southwest Arizona north of Yuma, when it went missing.

Ellie