THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 26, 1996 TAG: 9610260225
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 63 lines
A helicopter from the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Enterprise crashed into the Persian Gulf during a training mission Friday, killing at least one of the 12 Americans aboard.
Nine others were rescued shortly after the Jacksonville, Fla.-based chopper hit the water while returning to the Enterprise after completing a training exercise, Navy spokesmen said.
Two others were still missing late Friday.
The HH-60H Seahawk crashed about 11:15 a.m. (4:15 a.m. Norfolk time) in the northern gulf about 140 miles southeast of Kuwait City. It was about 10 miles from the carrier when it went down, Navy spokesman Lt. Rick Haupt said.
Navy officials did not comment on what caused the crash of the Seahawk, one of a half-dozen such helicopters aboard the Enterprise from the ``Red Lions'' of Helicopter Squadron 15, based at Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
Navy spokesmen declined to say whether the dead sailor was a member of the helicopter's crew or a passenger. Those rescued were undergoing treatment aboard the Enterprise later in the day.
It did appear, however, that the crashed helicopter had been scheduled to perform ``ship boarding'' exercises, in which sailors rappel down ropes dropped from the chopper to a ship below.
Such exercises are often performed by Navy SEAL commandos, a contingent of whom are aboard the Enterprise.
Half of the seagoing service's elite SEALs are based in Virginia Beach, at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base and Dam Neck's Fleet Combat Training Center Atlantic.
Navy spokesmen refused to confirm Friday that the passengers aboard the Seahawk, which typically has a crew of three or four, were SEALs, but the HH-60H is a model of the twin-engine Seahawk specifically designed to transport the commandos, as well as to perform combat search-and-rescue missions.
The names of the helicopter's occupants were withheld, pending notification of relatives.
The Enterprise, four months into a six-month cruise that began June 28, has been steaming in the northern gulf since Sept. 19, when it completed a dash from the Adriatic to join an American armada staring down Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Its squadrons of fighters and attack planes have joined British, French and other American warplanes enforcing the no-fly zone over Iraq since shortly after the carrier's arrival in the region.
Friday's crash marked the second aircraft lost from a Norfolk-based carrier in 2 1/2 months. An F/A-18 pilot was killed in mid-August when his single-seat attack plane from the carrier Theodore Roosevelt crashed off the coast of Puerto Rico.
The Seahawk, which in varying forms is used by the Navy, Army and Coast Guard, has proved a workhorse of troop transport, cargo hauling, antisubmarine warfare, search and rescue, and special operations since its introduction in 1979. It joined naval service in 1983.
The single-rotor chopper is built by Sikorsky Aircraft of Stratford, Conn. ILLUSTRATION: AP GRAPHIC
HH-60H SEAHAWK
SOURCE: Jane's All the World's Aircraft
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT HELICOPTER ACCIDENT MILITARY FATALITY
U.S.S. ENTERPRISE HH-60H SEAHAWK by CNB