US Navy helicopter crash: 5 missing sailors identified after 4 days of rescue ops
The United States Navy has officially declared five missing sailors dead, more than four days after rescue efforts began following a helicopter crash off the San Diego Coast. According to reports, an MH-60S helicopter from the USS Abraham Lincoln crashed on Tuesday, August 31 while conducting routine operations. Now, nearly a week later, one person has been rescued, with five still missing.
The tragic incident is the latest setback for the US military, still mourning the loss of 13 marines who were killed in a bomb blast in Kabul. In May, fighter pilot Nicholas Hunter Hamilton died after his flight crashed near Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. In May 2020, a vintage Junker JU52 HB-HOT, used by the Luftwaffe in World War 2, crashed in the Swizz Alps killing 20. The cause for the crash of the MH-60S has not yet been identified, with an investigation still ongoing.
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Since the crash, helicopters from other Navy ships including the USS Cincinnati and the Coast Guard have been attempting to locate the bodies of the five missing sailors, but to no avail. "U.S. 3rd Fleet has shifted from search and rescue efforts to recovery operations," the navy said in a statement. Now, 24 hours after they were officially declared dead, the Navy has publicly named the deceased.
Who are the sailors that died?
According to the Navy, the five sailors that died in the crash are 31-year-old Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Sarah F Burns, 28-year-old Lt Paul R Fridley, 31-year-old Naval Air Crewman (Helicopter) 2nd Class James P. Buriak, 29-year-old Lt. Bradley A. Foster, and 21-year-old Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Bailey J. Tucker. Burns is from Severna Park, Maryland, Tucker from St. Louis in Missouri, Buriak and Fridley are from Virginia (Salem and Annandale respectively), and Foster from Oakhurst, California.
Little else is known about the sailors and we were unable to locate public social media profiles for them. In February 2020, Buriak made the news for rescuing a tourist in Guam, who was swept into the sea by the current. "I just happened to be the person there," he said at the time.
We couldn't find mentions of the others in the press, beyond the accident on August 31. It's unclear as of now exactly what happened. The New York Times reported that the helicopter was conducting "routine flight operations" 60 nautical miles off the coast. Five sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were also injured that day, but the Navy declined to comment if their injuries were related to the helicopter crash. Two of the five were taken ashore for treatment, while the other three were treated aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier for minor injuries. Following the crash, five search helicopters were deployed to search for the sailors, but only one of them was reduced. The unidentified sailor is in stable condition, the Navy said.
The five sailors were declared dead on September 4, and their names were released on September 5 via Twitter. "An investigation into the incident is underway," the Navy said, not revealing further details of the incident. Assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 8, the MH-60S was part of several aircraft belonging to the USS Abraham Lincoln, assigned to the Third Fleet, headquartered in San Diego.
