Coast Guard helicopter crashes in Mobile Bay; 3 still missing

MOBILE, Alabama -- A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter with 4 crew members aboard crashed Tuesday night in south central Mobile Bay, authorities said.

There was no word late Tuesday on the fate of 3 missing crew members or of the 1 crew member recovered shortly after the 8:30 p.m. crash.

The recovered crew member, whose condition was not immediately known, was taken to a local hospital. The names of the crew members were not released pending notification of their families.

The recovered crew member was taken to U.S. Coast Guard Sector Mobile just north of Mobile Downtown Airport, where a rescue crew from the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department was waiting, spokesman Steve Huffman said.

The helicopter that crashed was an MH-65, and it had departed the U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Training Center earlier Tuesday night on a training mission, according to USCG spokesman Lt. J.G. Timothy Williams.

The chopper went down about 2-3 miles southwest of Point Clear, or about 3 miles west of the Scenic U.S. 98 intersection with County Road 1 north of Mullet Point, the USCG said.

Soundings available on Google Earth state that water in the area averages 13 feet in depth, depending on the tide. The National Weather Service said that Tuesday night winds in the area were southeast at about 15 miles per hour with a water temperature of 63 degrees.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Elizabeth Bordelon, speaking from New Orleans, said that a number of rescue crews were assisting the Coast Guard in the area of the crash.

Bordelon said that 2 more MH-65s from New Orleans joined a response cuter from Dauphin Island.
Williams said that an HU-144 twin-engine fixed-wing search aircraft was also deployed, and an Alabama Marine Resources boat went to the area, as did a crew from the Mobile County Sheriff’s Flotilla.

The Coast Guard said it set up a command center at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear.
The MH-65, also called the Dolphin, has been a familiar sight in the skies over Mobile for more than 20 years. Its most distinctive feature is a ducted-fan anti-torque device in a circular housing at the back of the craft. It can carry a crew of four.

What caused the crash has not been determined. Bordelon said that the Coast Guard was most concerned with trying to locate the three remaining crew members.

"This is our family that we’re talking about," Bordelon said.

- Al.com