Search is called off after crash into sea
Authorities called off the search for three US marines after their aircraft crashed off Queensland’s coast.
US Marine Corps said the families of the missing have been notified, with efforts now reportedly focused on recovery.
“Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time,” it tweeted. “All other personnel are accounted for and safe.”
The three were among 26 personnel onboard the MV-22 Osprey that crashed into the sea on Saturday off Shoalwater Bay, where the biennial Talisman Sabre joint US and Australian military training exercise is underway.
It had taken off from the USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship, and was on regularly scheduled operations when it hit the water in what the US military described as a “mishap”.
Small boats and aircraft from the
Bonhomme Richard were immediately deployed into a search before it was called off.
The Queensland Ambulance Service says it transported one of the marines involved to Rockhampton Hospital with a fractured leg but it is not known how many others onboard were injured.
US President Donald Trump, who has just begun a 17-day “working vacation”, at his New Jersey golf club, had been briefed on the incident by his new chief of staff John Kelly, a White House official told reporters.
Minister for Defence Marise Payne confirmed in a statement that no Australian Defence Force personnel were on board the aircraft.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk offered her government’s support.
“On behalf of all Queenslanders, our prayers are with those US military personnel involved in the incident,” she said.
The incident is the 10th known crash involving an Osprey, a tilt rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like an aeroplane, since 1991, and the sixth since it officially came into service in 2007.
It is also potentially the worst military accident in Australia since the 1996 Black Hawk tragedy that killed 18 servicemen near Townsville.