Three crew members were rescued after a U.S. Navy MH-60S Sea Hawk made a 60s water landing Arabian Sea early Wednesday, and one crew member remained missing. U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said the four-person crew was assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush.
Three of the helicopter's four crew members have been recovered and are in stable condition aboard George H. W. Bush, the command said. U.S. Navy assets in the region are currently searching for the other aircrewman still missing.
George H.W. Bush crew
The incident happened at about 3:30 a.m. Eastern time, which would have been about 11 a.m. local time. That puts the emergency landing into a narrow window in which the crew was operating over the Arabian Sea before the rescue response reached all four people on board.
The helicopter was assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush, which had been in the Middle East since late April. It was one of two aircraft carriers remaining in the region when the landing happened, and the ship's aviation detachment was part of the carrier's daily operations at sea.
Arabian Sea search
The military said there was no indication the helicopter was shot down by hostile action. That matters because the same region has seen other aircraft incidents involving Iran, including a U.S. Apache helicopter shot down by an Iranian drone in early June, after which the two crew members were rescued and U.S. self-defense strikes followed.
The search for the missing crew member remained active as U.S. Navy assets continued working in the region. The immediate question is not the aircraft's assignment or the rescue count, but what caused the MH-60S Sea Hawk to make the emergency water landing in the first place.
