US Commander: Helicopter crash cause not yet known

The cause of a U.S. Air Force helicopter crash in England earlier this week in which all four crew members were killed isn't yet known, a U.S. commander said Thursday, as authorities removed the remains of the airmen from the site. Col. Kyle Robinson, 48th Fighter Wing commander, said the base would resume limited flights Thursday after aircraft were grounded Wednesday. "However, it is still too early to speculate as what caused the crash and make any long-term decisions based on that," he said at a news conference. The HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter from the 48th Fighter Wing at Lakenheath Royal Air Force, the largest U.S. Air Force-operated base in England, went down during a routine training mission after dark Tuesday in a nature reserve on the Norfolk coast, some 130 miles northeast of London. The airmen, Capt. Christopher Stover and Capt. Sean Ruane, who were piloting the helicopter, and Technical Sgt. Dale Mathews and Staff Sgt. Afton M. Ponce, who were the special mission operators, had made the ultimate sacrifice, he said. The base declined to give their ages. Police said no evidence had been found to suggest the crash was a criminal matter so they were handing over their work to crash investigators from the U.S. Air Force and British Ministry of Defence to lead the inquiry. Given the difficult terrain, the investigation could take several weeks, police said in a statement. The scene remains cordoned off. Police said Wednesday that the crash site was about the size of a soccer field and investigators faced the added challenge of accounting for munitions that were on the aircraft when it went down. Aerial footage of the site on television showed debris and mangled metal strewed across the marshy area, with no pieces visible that were recognizable as a helicopter. Second Lt. Keenan Kunst said all materials, sensitive and otherwise, at the crash site had been secured. The helicopter was carrying a machine gun and 600 50-caliber machine-gun bullets, as well as an M9 handgun and some 9 mm bullets, he said. Lakenheath, some 70 miles northeast of London, is home to squadrons of F-16 fighter jets and Pave Hawks. The helicopters are manufactured by Sikorsky, a unit of United Technologies Corp. Frans Jurgens, a spokesman for Sikorsky, said Wednesday that the U.S. Air Force is looking to replace its aging fleet of HH-60G Pave Hawks, which were mostly delivered in the 1980s, but the contract depends on a budget review. Although they are old aircraft, they have an exemplary safety record and have been used extensively in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.