NAVARRE — With darkness and dense fog hampering their efforts, crews waited for daylight to resume the full search for 11 military personnel whose helicopter crashed Tuesday into the Santa Rosa Sound.
“Because of the fog and the safety issues for people performing the operation, we are really only monitoring and patrolling the area overnight,” said Andy Bourland, Chief of Public Affairs for Eglin Air Force Base.
“We will try to resume this as soon as we can (Thursday) morning,” he said.
VIDEO: Eglin spokesman press conference
The personnel – seven Marines and four Army National Guardsmen – were aboard a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed during a training exercise into the Santa Rosa Sound, east of the Navarre Beach Bridge.
Although local military officials said that it remained a search and rescue operation, an unnamed source at the Pentagon told the Associated Press Wednesday morning that all were presumed dead.
“We will continue to hold out hope until the search is concluded,” said Eglin spokesman Mike Spaits.
Difficult discoveries
People who live along the sound watched Wednesday as rescue vessels slowly trolled through the fog and searchers scoured the beaches.
One Riviera Beach resident woke to find a search team vehicle outside and watched crews recover a body from the beach near her home.
A wheel from the helicopter and a large piece of fuselage also washed up there.
In Biscayne Pointe, a resident reported finding numerous pieces of debris, including a manual, pieces of foam and a shredded uniform.
The crash took place near Site A-17, which is part of a long stretch of Santa Rosa Island owned by the military and used for tests and training exercises.
Routine training
The four Army National Guard members were assigned to the 1-244th Assault Helicopter Battalion out of Hammond, Louisiana. The Marines were part of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command (MARCOM) at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
The helicopter was one of two UH-60 aircraft participating in what a Marine Corps spokesman called “routine amphibious training” on the isolated stretch of beach.
“They weren’t doing anything extraordinarily dangerous from a special operations standpoint,” Capt. Barry Morris, a MARCOM spokesman, said of the exercise.
The second helicopter was not involved in the crash, and all of its crew members were reported to be safe and accounted for.
"Everything hushed"
The Black Hawk was reported missing at around 8:30 Tuesday evening.
The helicopters had taken off from Destin Executive Airport between 3 and 4 p.m., Tuesday, according to Sunil Harman, Okaloosa County airports director. They had been training in the area since March 8.
The Eglin Command Post relayed a final communication with the helicopter to the Airport Operations Center, Harman said
“They were trying to climb out of the weather and they think that the aircraft was trying to make it back to Destin but were unable to make contact,” he said, relating the conversation.
Residents reported smelling fuel at around that time. Others heard noises they identified as unusual, even for an area surrounded by military operations.
“When we heard the sound, we knew it wasn’t normal,” said Kimberly Urr, who was sitting outside at the Navarre Beach Campgrounds Tuesday night. “And after it happened, everything hushed . . . we didn’t hear anything.”
"A long, long drawn-out issue"
A multi-agency search and rescue operation began around 1 a.m. on Wednesday.
Searchers used boats, ATVs and aircraft when possible to search an approximately 13-mile stretch of both the north and south sides of the Santa Rosa Sound.
"It's going to be a long, long, drawn-out issue, just because of the size of the debris field," said Navarre Beach Fire Department Chief Mike Howard, whose crew assisted with the effort.
In the fog
The area was under a dense fog advisory at the time the helicopter went down.
“Low ceilings of 200 to 400 feet were observed at the time of the incident,” said Joe Maniscalco, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mobile.
In those conditions, visibility for a helicopter pilot would be no more than a half-mile, he added.
Fog was expected to continue throughout the night and into Thursday morning.
Heart of the community
The search consumed the Navarre community, which responded with prayers, offers to help with the search and food for the countless first responders.
“I’m proud of our community,” said Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Rich Aloy. “The military is a way of life for Santa Rosa.”
The tragedy hit close to home for Navarre resident Crystal Hamilton.
“We hear the helicopters going over the house all the time,” she said. “You don’t ever imagine something like this happening here.”
Daily News staff writer Tom McLaughlin contributed to this article.