Navy copter crashes into ocean, 3 bodies found

SAN DIEGO (AP) " Searchers recovered three bodies and scoured the ocean for two more members of a Navy flight crew Wednesday after their helicopter went down in darkness on a training flight, authorities said.

The HH-60 Seahawk helicopter took off from the USS Nimitz and crashed at 11:36 p.m. Tuesday, 13 miles southwest of San Diego and 87 miles from the Nimitz.

"There were five crew members on board and three deaths have been confirmed," said Lt. Karin Burzynski, spokeswoman for the Navy's 3rd Fleet in San Diego.

Helicopters and boats from the Navy and Coast Guard were searching for survivors in an area near the uninhabited Coronado Islands off the northwest coast of Mexico, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Jetta Disco.

Officials said the search will continue throughout the night.

The crew members could be expected to survive about 36 hours after the crash, based on water temperature, body weight and other factors, Disco said. The water was 63 degrees Wednesday afternoon.

Debris was found about 15 miles south of San Diego's Point Loma peninsula, Disco said.

Helicopters and boats from the Navy, Coast Guard, San Diego Harbor police, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Mexican navy were searching for survivors in an area near the uninhabited Coronado Islands off the northwest coast of Mexico, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Henry Dunphy.

There was no information on the cause of the crash, and names of the crew were withheld while authorities notified their families.

The helicopter was part of an anti-submarine squadron from Carrier Air Wing 11. The Nimitz and a half-dozen other ships in its strike group were taking part in search-and-rescue training exercises.

The Seahawk is a twin-engine helicopter typically used for anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue, drug interdiction, anti-ship warfare, cargo lift and special operations.

It wasn't immediately known if the Seahawk was equipped with a flight data recorder. Such devices, which record air speed, altitude, pitch and engine power, aren't required in many military aircraft.

In January 2007, four Navy crew members were killed when a Seahawk helicopter slammed into the Pacific during a training exercise off San Diego.

Naval investigators spent months probing that crash " involving the MH-60S Seahawk " but couldn't determine its cause because the helicopter did not have a flight data recorder, according to an investigation report obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

As a result of the crash, the investigators urged the Navy to install crash-resistant flight data recorders on its aircraft.

The HH-60H is manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. with General Electric Corp. engines. They were built in late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Navy has 35 HH-60H helicopters in service, primarily based at Naval Air Station North Island on San Diego Bay, Jacksonville, Fla., and Norfolk, Va.

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Associated Press Writers Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles and Pauline Jelinek and Richard Lardner in Washington contributed to this report.