Two Israeli pilots died after an Israeli Navy helicopter crashed off the coast of the northern Israel city of Haifa on Monday night, occupation military announced.
the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced.
The helicopter – an Atalef AS565 Panther – went down with a crew of three onboard, the two pilots and one patrol officer, Spokesperson’s Unit I the occupation military said.
The officer was rescued shortly after the crash from the sea and flown to Rambam Hospital in moderate condition.
The two pilots were identified as 38-year-old Lt.-Col Erez Sachaini, who served as deputy commander of Ramat David airbase, and 27-year-old Major Hen Fogel, Israeli media reported.
Israel Air Force chief of operations Brig.-Gen. Amir Lazar said that the two other crew members were recovered from the cockpit of the helicopter after it sank beneath the waves in a “complex” recovery operation.
According to Lazar, who spoke to reporters following the crash, the helicopter went down without sending an emergency distress call.
“No call was heard on the radio before the accident. It disappeared from the monitoring screen and then there was a report of a helicopter that hit the water and we activated rescue forces,” he said, as quoted by The Jerusalem Post.
“While the helicopter has a floating mechanism should it crash, the helicopter went underwater. The investigation into the crash will examine why the mechanism did not deploy,” JPost reported.
Source: Israeli media
