Navy officials haven’t yet confirmed that a reported aircraft crash Sunday afternoon in Cherokee National Forest in southeastern Tennessee, was in fact a missing Navy T-45 training jet, Navy sources say.
A massive ocean search for five soldiers who disappeared after a nighttime helicopter crash last week ended Monday after no signs of life were spotted among the debris.
Military investigators are trying to piece together the cause of a crash that killed 15 Marines and a sailor in Mississippi in July, but it could be a year or more until any information becomes public.
The U.S. Navy’s top uniformed officer wants to bring in industry experts to help the service understand why it has suffered two serious crashes in the Pacific theater in the last three months.
All five crew members aboard a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed over the Pacific had life vests and an air bottle for underwater breathing, but Army officials and rescuers searching the turbulent waters off Hawaii for days had not seen signs of life as of late Friday.