Navy helicopter with six crew on board crashes into San Diego Bay

A Navyhelicopter with six crew members on board crashed into San Diego Bay on Thursday, according to officials.

The MH-60R helicopter was on a routine training mission in California when it crashed into the water in Coronado, close to San Diego, at around 6.40pm local time, Naval Air Station North Island spokesperson Commander Beth Teach said in a statement.

Fire Department personnel and the US Coast Guard responded to the crash site and rescued all six people on board, bringing them ashore by safety boat, she said.

All crew members survived the crash with Navy officials confirming that none suffered any critical or life-threatening injuries.

“Due to the nature of the training, a safety boat was on location and, with the assistance of Federal Fire, all six crew members survived and were promptly moved ashore,” Commander Teach said in the statement.

“All personnel are undergoing medical evaluation at this time,” the statement continued. “An investigation has been initiated to determine the cause of the crash.”

The MH-60R is known as a Sea Hawk helicopter, and is used for anti-submarine and surface warfare, according to the Navy’s website.

It can also perform a wide variety of missions, including reconnaissance and search-and-rescue operations.

It is not the first time a US Army helicopter has crashed in recent months.

In November, five Army aviation special operations forces were killed when their helicopter “experienced an in-flight emergency” during aerial refueling training, causing it to crash into the Mediterranean sea.

The same month, a US Navy spy plane crashed into an environmentally sensitive bay off the Hawaiian island of Oahu after ploughing off the runway at a US Marine Corps base.

There were no fatalities that time, but the Navy is still attempting to remove the aircraft from a bed of coral and sand.

The cause of the crash remains unclear and an investigation is underway.