Footage Of Black Hawk Helicopter Wreckage In Florida

AP

Seven Marines and four soldiers are presumed dead after a helicopter crashed off a Florida Beach early Wednesday morning, on March 11th, states AP.   A thick fog had reduced visibility in the area when the helicopter was on a training mission.

According to Stars and Stripes publication, human remains have washed ashore along the Florida coastline after the helicopter vanished during a training mission Tuesday night, according to the military.

Local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and military members from Eglin Air Force base outside Pensacola, where the flight originated, have been searching for debris since the helicopter was reported missing, said Sara Vidoni, an Air Force spokeswoman at the base.

“Fog impeded the search mission this morning, but it is beginning to dissipate,” she said, adding that the search efforts had been limited to boats and teams walking the shore because of the fog.

The Marines were from the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, known as MARSOC, said Capt. Barry Morris, a MARSOC spokesman at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. According to Stars and Stripes, the soldiers were from a Hammond, La.-based National Guard unit, The Associated Press reported.

CNN states, “The helicopter was first reported missing at about 8:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. ET) Tuesday. Hours later, searchers found debris around Okaloosa Island near Eglin Air Force Base, base spokesman Andy Bourland said.”

 

Photos from Yahoo! News

(Updated post)

Cargo Ship Sinks Off Scotland, Eight People Feared Dead

The search for the eight crew missing after a cargo ship sank off the coast of Scotland has been suspended.

Euronews video.

At Least 2 Deaths In West Coast Storm

A ferocious storm system pounded a huge swath of the West Coast with heavy rain, hurricane-force winds and power outages Thursday, causing at least two deaths.

In some parts of northern California, the storm produced hurricane-force winds of 78 mph and one gust of 147 mph in the Sierra.

The storm is one of the strongest to hit the West Coast in years.

Authorities in Southern Oregon say high winds toppled a tree atop a 40-year-old homeless man sleeping in a tent along the Pacific Coast Trail.

The Jackson County sheriff’s office said the man, Phillip Crosby, complained of difficulty breathing and died shortly afterward.

A teen died of storm-related injuries Thursday evening in the Portland, Ore. area after a very large tree fell onto a vehicle, apparently causing the woman who was in the car with him to swerve into another tree.

The teenage boy was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was was seriously injured and taken to a nearby hospital.

San Francisco’s Cable Cars Halted

Power in San Francisco’s Financial District, in the heart of the city, went out shortly after 7 a.m. PT, forcing the evacuation of thousands of workers from skyscrapers over several blocks. The iconic Bank of America was darkened.

Municipal buses were abandoned on city streets because they had no power.

Traffic was gridlocked on Highway 280, the stretch of road that connects San Francisco to San Jose.

Every 15 minutes or so a National Weather Service interrupted radio reports to warn residents not to drive through flooded areas.

In San Francisco, electricity was knocked out from the Marina to the financial district and beyond. The power outages stretched over thousands of square miles, from near the Oregon border to Big Sur on California’s Central Coast.

San Francisco’s cable car system was shut down before the storm hit because of concern over the effectiveness of brakes on the aging cars in wet conditions.