Mexican military helicopter crashed in Pacific Ocean
A Mexican military helicopter crashed in the Pacific Ocean. There are fatalities (photo: Getty Images)
On Wednesday, March 6, the Mexican Navy announced that one of their helicopters crashed into the Pacific Ocean shortly after taking off from the deck of a patrol ship. Preliminarily, 3 military personnel were reported dead, and 2 others are missing, according to the Associated Press.
The Eurocopter Panther helicopter took off from an ocean patrol vessel about 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) southwest of the Pacific coast port of Lazaro Cardenas. The Mexican Navy regularly patrols this area to detect secret maritime shipments of cocaine.
Searches for the missing continued on Wednesday, and the likely causes of the crash are being investigated. There were 8 people on board the helicopter: three were rescued and taken to hospital, their condition is stable, according to the fleet.
Two of the dead were female navy service members.
It marks the second military mishap within the space of about two weeks in Mexico that has left a total of about a dozen service members dead.
On January 24, a military plane Il-76 crashed in the Belgorod region. The governor of the region confirmed that an emergency had occurred in the Korocha district. Videos from the scene of the crash of the Il-76 military transport aircraft also appeared on the network.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that there were 65 prisoners of war from the Armed Forces of Ukraine on board the Il-76. Allegedly, the military was being taken for exchange in the Belgorod region. In addition, according to the Russians, there were six crew members and three accompanying persons on board.
Earlier, there was a report of a US military plane crash over the Mediterranean Sea. Five people were dead. The US Air Force plane crashed in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea during training.
There were no signs of downing or indicators of hostile activity reported by the US European Command (EUCOM).
