Army helicopter reported down off Hawaii coast, 5 missing

Coast Guard and Army personnel responded Wednesday morning to reports of a downed Army helicopter and five missing people off the coast of Hawaii.

A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter had five crew members on board when it reportedly went down two miles west of Kaena Point, Oahu, according to a Coast Guard statement.

Officials spotted a debris field at 11:28 p.m. local time Tuesday.

“Responders are currently searching for the five missing aircrewmen,” the statement said.

{mosads}The statement adds that watch standers at the Coast Guard Command Center in Honolulu received a call at 10:08 p.m. from personnel at Wheeler Army Airfield stating they lost communication with one of their UH-60 Black Hawk aircrews.

Two Black Hawk aircrews were reportedly conducting training between Kaena Point and Dillingham Airfield at the time communications were lost.

Multiple air and boat crews were searching Wednesday morning for the missing crew members.

The incident follows two deadly crashes involving Marine Corps aircraft in the last month. Two Marines were declared dead after their MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor crashed in the waters off Australia’s east coast on Aug. 5.

And 16 people were killed in July after a Marine C-130 crashed in rural Mississippi.