Human remains found in Pacific
Wreckage of US Navy helicopter discovered by salvage team as well
SAN DIEGO — The remains of five people and the wreckage of a U.S. Navy helicopter that crashed into the Pacific Ocean off California have been recovered, the Navy said in a statement Tuesday.
The MH-60S helicopter, its two pilots and three other sailors were lost in an Aug. 31 accident about 69 miles off the San Diego coast.
A salvage team aboard the multipurpose vessel HOS Bayou made the recovery from a depth of about 5,300 feet Friday, the Navy said.
The Bayou arrived at Naval Station North Island in San Diego Bay on Sunday and the human remains were sent to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, for identification.
The helicopter was operating from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln when its rotor hit the flight deck and the aircraft fell into the ocean. One crew member was rescued immediately after the crash.
A search for any other survivors went on for nearly a week before the Navy declared the missing sailors dead.
They were Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Sarah F. Burns, 31, from Severna Park; Lt. Bradley A. Foster, 29, a pilot from Oakhurst, California; Lt. Paul R. Fridley, 28, a pilot from Annandale, Virginia; Naval Air Crewman (Helicopter) 2nd Class James P. Buriak, 31, from Salem, Virginia; and Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Bailey J. Tucker, 21, from St. Louis, Missouri.
The aircraft belonged to the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 8.
A brief Navy narrative of a fatal helicopter crash off Southern California says the aircraft experienced “side-to-side” vibrations that caused the main rotor to hit the deck of an aircraft carrier while landing, San Diego Union-Tribune reported in September.
The crash summary in a Naval Safety Center document, first reported by the Navy Times, did not include any information on what might have caused the vibrations.
The Navy said the investigation of the crash is continuing.