Press Report
NEW BERN, N.C.
Two Marines were injured when their Super Cobra attack helicopter crashed in the Croatan National Forest on North Carolina's central coast.
The men suffered multiple contusions, but were able to walk, said Capt. James Jarvis, spokesman for the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
He said they were in critical but stable condition at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville. Their identities were withheld while the Marines attempted to reach their families, he said.
Marine Staff Sgt. Amy Contreras said the helicopter crashed at 3:42 near Catfish Lake, about 10 miles northwest of Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station and eight miles south of New Bern in the Croatan National Forest.
The crash site is about a mile from the nearest road in an unpopulated area, Jarvis said. The terrain is so thickly wooded that a Marine rescue helicopter was unable to land and the victims had to be hoisted aboard while it hovered overhead, he said. Contreras said the men were conscious and in good spirits when rescuers arrived.
The pilots, assigned to the 26th MEU based at New River Air Station near Jacksonville, were on a training flight when the crash occurred, Jarvis said.