One Missing After Helicopter Makes ‘Emergency Water Landing’ Near Iran, US Navy Says

A helicopter from the U.S. 5th fleet had an “emergency water landing” in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

The emergency water landing happened at 3:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, according to an X post from the U.S. 5th Fleet. The helicopter had a crew of four people; three were recovered, but one crewmember is still missing, according to the X post.

The helicopter was an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter assigned to USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), according to the X post. There is no indication that the emergency was caused by hostile action, the post said.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. 5th Fleet declined to comment.

The Seahawk can be equipped for multiple different missions, including Anti-Surface Warfare, combat support, humanitarian disaster relief, Combat Search and Rescue, aero medical evacuation, SPECWAR and organic Airborne Mine Countermeasures, according to the U.S. Navy. However, it remains unclear what package the helicopter was flying with at the time it went down.

MH-60S Seahawk helicopters are worth roughly $25 million to $31 million, according to Pentagon budget figures from fiscal 2015, the final year of Navy procurement for the Seahawks.

The ship the helicopter was assigned to, the USS George H.W. Bush, is a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, a massive vessel with a crew of roughly 5,000 people, according to the U.S. Navy.

The emergency occurred amid increased hostilities between the U.S. and Iran. The U.S. and Iran exchanged strikes on Saturday, CNN reported, citing Iranian state media Press TV and CENTCOM.

The U.S. strikes were conducted on Saturday after President Donald Trump claimed that the Iranians violated the ceasefire agreed to in the MOU.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a one-way attack drone that hit the Kiku, an oil tanker carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil, on Saturday, according to a CENTCOM press release. The IRGC struck another ship, the Ever Lovely, on Friday, according to the press release.

“The unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire,” CENTCOM said Friday in an X post. “Furthermore, Iran’s dangerous behavior undermined freedom of navigation as commerce increasingly flows through the vital international trade corridor.”

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