Search for Marines missing off coast of Australia called off; recovery effort underway

Source: fox43.com --- Sunday, August 06, 2017
Watch Video (CNN) — A sea search off Australia’s east coast for three missing US Marines was called off early Sunday, the military said. The three Marines have been missing since what the Marine Corps calls a “mishap” with an MV-22 aircraft on Saturday. Twenty-three of the 26 personnel on board the aircraft were rescued, the Marine Corps said. US military aircraft and boats scoured ocean waters off Australia searching without success for the three missing Marines. The families of the missing Marines have been notified, the military said. “Operations have now shifted to recovery efforts,” the Marines said in a news release. A salvage operation to retrieve the aircraft will begin in the next several days. Small boats and aircraft from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group searched for the missing, the Marine Corps said. The US military has been in the area for training exercises with the Australian military. The MV-22 is a vertical-launch aircraft, also known as an Osprey. “The aircraft involved in the mishap had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard (a Navy amphibious assault ship) and was conducting regularly scheduled operations when the aircraft entered the water,” the Marine Corps said in a statement. Crew on board the Bonhomme Richard were performing water training exercises Saturday, according to the ship’s Facebook page. The exercises were a followup to joint military training ...

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