Navy Helicopter Crash Kills 5 On Training Flight At Base In Nevada

Tuesday, May 8th 2007, 6:55 pm

By: News On 6

RENO, Nev. (AP) _ A Navy helicopter struck a power line during a training flight and crashed in a rugged area of the northern Nevada desert, killing all five crew members, the Navy said Tuesday.

Navy investigators were on the scene early Tuesday to recover the bodies.

The SH-60F helicopter, flying out of Naval Air Station Fallon, went down late Monday about 10 miles west of Austin, base spokesman Zip Upham said.

``The helicopter was on a combat search and rescue exercise,'' Upham said. He said it struck a high-voltage transmission line, cutting the line.

Faye Andersen, a spokeswoman for Sierra Pacific Power Co., said the chopper severed a static wire atop a 100-foot tall transmission line. The wire acts as a lightning rod to prevent direct hits and damage to the high-voltage line, she said.

No disruption of power was reported.

The helicopter was assigned to Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron Seven based in Jacksonville, Fla. The squadron is part of Carrier Air Wing Three, which deploys on the USS Harry S. Truman. The crew was on a monthlong training mission at Fallon that began April 30.

Upham said the crash occurred in an unpopulated area managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. He described the area as ``rugged terrain, very remote.''

Names of the crew members were withheld pending the notification of their relatives.

Fallon, 60 miles east of Reno, is the home of the Navy's elite Strike and Air Warfare Center, formed in 1996 with the consolidation of the Navy fighter Weapons School known as ``Top Gun'' and the Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School, or ``Top Dome.''