Three members of the Royal Navy have died in a helicopter crash in Devon, according to the Ministry of Defence. <\/p>\n
The incident happened just before 4am this morning at Sourton Down, near Okehampton. <\/p>\n
The Ministry of Defence confirmed the crash happened during a helicopter training exercise. <\/p>\n
In a statement, the head of the Navy, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins said: “I am deeply saddened to share the news that three crew members onboard a Royal Navy Merlin Mk4 helicopter have died after it crashed in the early hours of this morning near Sourton, Devon.<\/p>\n
“I know this will come as a huge shock to all in our Naval community, and my deepest condolences go out to the families, friends and loved ones impacted by this tragedy.\u2028<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to thank Devon and Cornwall Police and the search and rescue teams who responded to the incident this morning.\u2028<\/p>\n
\u201cAn investigation is under way and further updates will be provided in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eddie Amhof saw the incident from his window after hearing a helicopter hovering over his house this morning. <\/p>\n
Eddie Amhof, who lives locally, said he was already awake when he heard the helicopter hovering over his house at around 3am. <\/p>\n
“I heard this horrendous noise from a helicopter, it sounded like he was going to pitch on the roof. It was a terrible noise,” he said. <\/p>\n
“By the time I got out of bed, and got to the window, he’d moved away about half a mile,” he added. <\/p>\n
“And all of a sudden, no noise at all. The engines was gone. And I thought, that wasn’t long enough for him to disappear out of ear-sight.<\/p>\n
The site of the crash at Sourton Down near Okehampton. Credit: PA Images <\/p>\n
“At the same time as the engines went, there was an almighty flash of red which lit up the sky. <\/p>\n
“About five to six minutes after that there was a big bang, an explosion.”<\/p>\n
Images from the scene suggest the aircraft is a Merlin helicopter, which usually has a crew of four and can carry up to 24 troops. <\/p>\n
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions today, Sir Keir Starmer said it is a \u201cdeeply worrying time\u201d for the families of those involved in the crash.<\/p>\n
Adding later in a statement, he said: “I\u2019m deeply saddened to hear that three members of the Royal Navy have died following a helicopter crash this morning in Devon.”My thoughts are with their families, friends and loved ones at this time.”Thank you to all the emergency services responding to this horrific incident.” <\/p>\n
Road closures were in place in the Sourton Down area for much of the day as investigations were carried out.<\/p>\n
Defence Secretary John Healey said: \u201cI am devastated by the loss of three service personnel overnight. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey served with excellence and will be much missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll our thoughts are with their families, friends and those they served with at this incredibly sad time.” <\/p>\n
The scene of the crash is close to Okehampton battle camp, a military facility on the edge of Dartmoor which has been used for training Merlin helicopter crews from the Commando Helicopter Force.<\/p>\n
It lies between the Royal Navy\u2019s air bases at Yeovilton in Somerset and Culdrose in Cornwall.<\/p>\n
In a post on social media the Ministry of Defence said: <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is with deep sadness that we can confirm three members of the Royal Navy have died during a helicopter training exercise on Wednesday June 3 near Sourton, Devon.\u2028<\/p>\n
\u201cThe families of the service personnel have been informed and have requested a period of grace before further details are released.\u2028<\/p>\n
\u201cOur thoughts and sympathies are with their families and friends at this sad time.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three members of the Royal Navy have died in a helicopter crash in Devon, according to the Ministry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-619041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}