EL CENTRO, Calif. (KGTV) — A U.S. Navy helicopter crashed Thursday afternoon near El Centro, military officials confirmed.
The MH-60S Seahawk aircraft crashed on a U.S. Navy training range near El Centro during a training exercise.
“According to our initial reports, all four of the air crew on board survived the crash,” Cmdr. Zach Harrell said.
One member of the crew suffered a non-life-threatening injury and was taken to a local hospital. A Naval official confirmed that the three other crew members were screened at a hospital and released with “no known injuries.”
The helicopter and its crew were based out of Naval Air Station North Island.
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ABC 10News spoke to an aviation safety consultant about the Seahawk.
"In the Navy, they use it extensively. It's used also in the Coast Guard. It's very reliable aircraft. It's got a good safety record,” Richard Martindell said.
The crash comes one day after an MV-22B Osprey crashed during a training mission near Glamis, California, killing five Marines.
Martindell said seeing two different crashes involving different aircraft happening within relative proximity to each other seems coincidental.
"I don't think that they're related in any way of accidents or anything like that. That accident could happen on the East Coast at the same time,” Martindell said. "The fact that they happened so close together, I don't think there's any connection until we get more information."
Navy officials aren't saying at this time how or what caused the crash to occur.
"Sounds to me like they made an emergency off field landing and that's why they survived it. Again, that's just pure speculation,” Martindell said.
