PA News
Search Stepped Up for Missing Helicopter Crew
A major search for four missing crew of a Royal Navy Lynx helicopter that apparently crashed into the sea was being stepped up again this morning.
Contact with the aircraft was lost just after 7pm last night as it carried out a sweep 19 miles off Lizard Point, Cornwall.
It had been scrambled after two Navy ratings on board the frigate HMS Montrose heard cries for help coming from the water.
A search and rescue operation to find the Lynx continued through the night but three military helicopters taking part had to return to base at 3.30am to refuel, Falmouth Coastguard said.
The helicopters, two from RNAS Culdrose near Helston, Cornwall, and one with infra-red imaging equipment from RAF Chivenor in Devon, were to resume searching from first light at 7.30am.
Aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious was co-ordinating operations at sea, aided by HMS Montrose and HMS St Albans.
The all-weather lifeboat from Falmouth was also dispatched to join the search last night and stayed out until 1am, the coastguard spokesman said.
A Royal Navy spokesman said that the missing aircraft was from the Royal Naval Air Station in Yeovilton, Somerset.
The families of the crew members were last night being informed of the operation to try to rescue their relatives.
But as the hours passed fears were growing for the missing crew members.
A spokesman for RAF Kinloss, from where the operation was being co-ordinated, said last night: “As every hour goes by you have to be realistic about it.
“But what fires rescue teams to keep going is the thought that people can, and people do, survive against the odds.”
He continued: “What we don’t know is whether they were able to control their landing on the water or whether it was something that happened very quickly.”
He said the helicopter had been responding to reports of a man overboard. But the Montrose and St Albans later reported all personnel accounted for.
A French warship was in the area and had also said it had accounted for its personnel.
Commander John Parris, Royal Navy spokesman, told Sky News: “The helicopter is thought to have crashed into the sea.
“Our thoughts tonight are with the naval aviation community.”
Cmdr Parris said that no SOS call had been made from the stricken aircraft but that it had disappeared from radar.