’11 killed’ as US military helicopter crashes in Miami

Seven marines and four soldiers aboard a military helicopter in Florida are feared dead in a crash, which occurred during a night training mission on Tuesday.

The army black hawk chopper was reported missing about 8:30 pm on Tuesday but searchers found debris about 2 am on Wednesday.

“We have confirmed that we have had some human remains wash ashore in the area where our search and rescue team have begun a larger-scale operation,” Andy Bourland, an official of the military, told New York post.

Bourland said the helicopter that crashed took off from a nearby airport in Destin and joined other aircraft in the exercise.

“Whatever the trouble was with the one aircraft, it did not involve the second helicopter that was participating in the exercise,” he told CNN.

The names of the marines and crew members were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The training area includes 20 miles of beachfront that has been controlled by the military before World War II.

Test range manager Glenn Barndollar told the Associated Press in August that the beach provides an ideal training area for special-ops units from all branches of the military.

The UH-60 Black Hawk was introduced into army service in 1979, as a successor to the UH-1 Huey, the ubiquitous workhorse during the Vietnam War.

The Black Hawk’s crew comprises two pilots and two crew chiefs, and can carry an entire 11-man infantry squad.

On October 3, 1993, two Black Hawks were shot down in Somalia in the Battle of Mogadishu — commonly known by the title of a movie about it, “Black Hawk Down” — which left 18 Americans killed and 73 wounded.