One dead, two injured after Navy plane crashes off Virginia coast

A Navy plane crashed Wednesday evening off the coast of Virginia and near Maryland, killing one and injuring two others, according to authorities. 

The E2-D Hawkeye aircraft went down around 7:30 p.m. near Wallops Island and Chincoteague, Va., Naval Air Force Atlantic said in statement early Thursday morning.  

A Navy officer told The Associated Press that the crew — from the East Coast Airborne Command and Control Squadron based out of Norfolk — had been conducting routine flight operations in the area located near the Eastern Shore boundary of Virginia and Maryland. 

Two crew members were rescued by Maryland State Police and transported to Wallops Island for follow-on medical treatment for non-life-threatening injuries, though the third crew member was found deceased in the aircraft, according to the Navy. 

The Worcester County Fire Department Dive Team helped in the search and recovery of the crew member who was killed, whose name will not be released pending next of kin notification, the service said.

The incident is under investigation. 

The U.S. military has experienced a spate of deadly accidents involving rotary-wing aircraft, including one less than 24 hours earlier involving two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters at an Army airfield in Georgia. The accident at Fort Stewart killed medical officer Capt. James Bellew, 26, the Army revealed Thursday.  

Earlier this month, four Marines were killed when an MV-22B Osprey aircraft crashed in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Norway. 

Four civilian personnel were also killed in a crash at a missile range in Kauai, Hawaii, in February.   

That same month, two Blackhawk helicopters crashed during Utah National Guard training, though no serious injuries were reported.   

And in January, one person was injured when a Navy Seahawk helicopter — an aircraft based on the Army’s Blackhawk — made a crash landing in coastal Virginia.