A US Navy MH-60S Seahawk helicopter made an emergency water landing in the Arabian Sea at 3:30 am EDT on Wednesday (1 July), with search operations continuing for one of the four crew members.
The aircraft was assigned to USS George H. W. Bush, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier operating in the US
Central Command theatre.
Three of the four crew members were recovered and are in stable condition aboard the carrier, whilst US Navy assets in the region are currently searching for the missing aircrewman.
The US Naval Forces Central Command stated there was no indication the helicopter was shot down by hostile action, and the cause of the incident remains under investigation.
The MH-60S Seahawk is a twin-engine helicopter that can be utilised for search and rescue, special operations, combat support and other missions. The incident happened at approximately 11 am local time in the strategically important Arabian Sea waterway.
The mishap occurred amid tense ongoing negotiations between the US and Iran to end the war. This marks the second time in the past few weeks that a US military helicopter aircrew had to be rescued after a crash in the region, following a US Army AH-64 Apache rescue from the Gulf of Oman overnight on 9 June.
Helicopter water landings can be dangerous, even for experienced pilots, given the propensity of top-heavy aircraft to flip upside-down during submersion.
The US 5th Fleet confirmed the emergency water landing in a post on X, whilst naval vessels and aircraft continue searching for the missing service member.
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