Daijiworld Media Network - Sitka
Sitka, Jun 23: A US Coast Guard helicopter crashed during a training flight in Sitka, Alaska, on Monday, injuring all four crew members onboard, officials said.
The Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Sitka went down near Harbor Mountain during the training exercise, according to a statement from the Coast Guard Arctic District.
Sitka Fire and Rescue teams reached the crash site at around 11 am local time and transported all four crew members to Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center for treatment.
The condition of the injured personnel was not immediately disclosed. No fatalities were reported, and the cause of the crash is under investigation, the Coast Guard said.
Watchstanders at the Coast Guard Arctic District command centre received information about the crash at around 10:07 am local time. The agency said it was immediately responding to the incident.
“The safety, well-being and rescue of our crew members is our absolute, immediate priority,” the Coast Guard said in a statement, adding that a formal investigation would be conducted to determine the circumstances behind the crash.
Sitka, located in southeast Alaska, has a population of more than 8,300 people and is spread across several islands. The city is located about 95 air miles southwest of Juneau, Alaska’s capital.
The incident comes amid increased attention on aviation safety in the US following a series of aircraft accidents reported this month. Officials and aviation experts said the incidents involved different aircraft, operators and circumstances and were unlikely to be connected.
Recent aviation incidents include a US Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet crash in Washington state on June 13, a skydiving aircraft crash in Missouri on June 14 that killed 12 people, a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber crash in California on June 15 that killed eight people, and a business jet crash in Texas on June 16 that killed one person.
Authorities said each incident is being investigated separately by federal or military agencies.
The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating a near-miss incident at Boston Logan International Airport on June 20, where a Delta Air Lines flight was forced to abort its landing after another aircraft began departing from an intersecting runway.
Additional plane crashes were also reported over the weekend in Maryland, Ohio and Kentucky, with eight deaths recorded in separate incidents.