One Canadian Dead, Five Missing After Navy Helicopter Crash
By AFP
A Canadian sailor’s body has been found amid debris from a navy helicopter that crashed during a NATO operation in the sea between Greece and Italy, officials said Thursday.
Five other crew members from the Cyclone Sikorsky CH-148 helicopter are still missing.
“Yesterday, a Royal Canadian Navy helicopter on a NATO mission, carrying six members of the Canadian Armed Forces, went down with all hands in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Greece,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference in Ottawa.
“One casualty was recovered and five are missing,” he said.
A Greek military officer told AFP the debris had been found “in Italy’s zone of control and intervention,” specifying the wreckage belonged to the Canadian helicopter.
The Canadian frigate and submarine-hunting helicopter were 100 days into a NATO mission, aimed at deterring Russia.
More than 900 Canadian soldiers are deployed throughout Eastern Europe as part of Operation Reassurance Canada’s largest current international military deployment.
Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said the cause of the crash was “unknown,” but that an automatic beacon was located in the waters moments after contact was lost, and the helicopter’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders had since been recovered.
At the time of the accident the crew and allied ships were “not conducting surveillance or targeted operations on any particular vessel, adversary or otherwise”, Canada’s chief of the defence staff, General Jon Vance, said.
“We can’t rule anything out but I’m quite certain from a military situation, (the helicopter crash) was not a function of contact or shootdown,” he said.
Canada’s top general said a “very sizeable debris field” had been found and that a search and rescue operation continues in the 3,000-feet (900-meter) deep sea.
‘Air, sea search’
Vance also confirmed that the body of Sub Lieutenant Abbigail Cowbrough was recovered from the crash site.
Her father Shane Cowbrough said in a social media post he was “broken and gutted” by the loss of his eldest daughter.
“There are no words,” he said.
The two pilots, Captain Brenden MacDonald and Captain Kevin Hagen, as well as Captain Maxime Miron-Morin, Sub-Lieutenant Matthew Pyke and Master Corporal Matthew Cousins were also confirmed missing.
NATO ships and aircraft were taking part in the search, supported by Greece, Italy, Turkey and the United States, Juanita Chang, spokeswoman for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), said.
Initial reports said the helicopter had been over international waters 50 nautical miles (93 kilometers) off Kefalonia.
Around the time of the crash, Italian, Greek and Turkish frigates were taking part in naval exercises along with the Canadians.
