VIRGINIA BEACH 
 
 The Navy identified the two sailors who died and a third, who went missing, after a Navy helicopter crashed into the frigid Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, about 20 miles east of Cape Henry. 
 
 Lt. Wesley Van Dorn, 29, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Brian Collins, 25, died at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital Wednesday, officials told reporters at a Thursday afternoon news conference at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek. Both were members of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 14, based at Norfolk Naval Station. 
 
 The missing pilot, Lt. Sean Christopher Snyder, 39, of Santee, Calif., was identified by the Navy late this evening. 
 
 In a statement issued by the Navy, the Snyder family thanked the Navy, Coast Guard and Virginia Beach fire crews for their efforts to rescue him. 
 
 "At this time, our hearts and prayers are for Sean's recovery, the other families who have suffered loss, and for the health of the hospitalized sailors," the statement said. 
 
 Van Dorn, a pilot, was from Greensboro, N.C. and had served for more than six years. 
 
 Collins, an aircrewman, was from Truckee, Calif., and had been in the Navy about two years, officials said. 
 
 Four of the five crewmembers, including Van Dorn and Collins, were pulled from the water after the crash Wednesday morning. The search for Snyder has been ongoing. 
 
 The Coast Guard and Navy searched an area of more than 600 square miles before suspending its active search for the missing crew member at 3:30 this afternoon, said Coast Guard Capt. John Little said. Crews will continue working to recover wreckage and search for remains. 
 
 "It was a very challenging decision to make, but it's one that we felt we had to make," Little said. "It was an exhaustive search." 
 
 The Navy also requested assistance from the Virginia Beach fire and police departments again today. The Fire Department sent its mobile command center to First Landing State Park to be used as the Coast Guard's command post for the day, said Battalion Chief Amy Valdez. A fire boat with side-scan sonar capability assisted along with a police boat that has a tow sonar. 
 
 During a news conference this afternoon, the Navy said one sailor had been released from Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and a second was in stable condition. 
 
 The Navy promptly launched an investigation Wednesday to determine what caused the late-morning crash, but the day's efforts were focused on the five sailors who went down aboard the troubled aircraft. 
 
 With the water temperature around 40 degrees, Navy and Coast Guard officials feared their rescue mission could soon become a recovery operation. 
 
 The day began routinely enough, with two MH-53 Sea Dragons from Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 14, aka HM-14, leaving Norfolk Naval Station on a training mission. One of the aircraft made a distress call about 10:45 a.m., only moments before hitting the water. 
 
 It was unclear whether the crew performed an emergency water landing or lost control and crashed, said Capt. Todd Flannery, the commander of Helicopter Sea Combat Wing Atlantic. 
 
 "I don't know," said Flannery, repeating a line he uttered more than a half-dozen times during a somber news conference on the flight line where the downed aircraft had taken off hours earlier. "There's a lot we don't know right now." 
 
 After impact, the second helicopter dropped a raft into the water, and two crew members climbed in. 
 
 The Coast Guard cutter Shearwater was 2 miles away - close enough to hear but not see the crash - and made its way to the scene as the Navy dispatched two MH-60 Seahawks from Norfolk Naval Station. 
 
 The rescue helicopters arrived within 30 minutes of impact and hoisted the two sailors from the raft. Two other crew members were pulled from the chilly water about 45 minutes after the crash and were hoisted into the second Seahawk. The four sailors were flown to Norfolk General. Two died there, one was listed in serious condition, and the other was upgraded to fair. 
 
 When Virginia Beach rescue boats arrived near the crash location, they encountered a large debris field that spread over a half-mile area, Battalion Chief Tracy Freeman of the Virginia Beach Fire Department said. 
 
 Pieces of the helicopter were scattered across the water. A fireboat with side-scan sonar helped find the fuselage and tail section, which had sunk by the time rescue crews arrived. 
 
 The Coast Guard and Navy planned to search through the night for the fifth crew member. All would have been wearing survival suits for a flight over cold water, Flannery said, but it's unclear how long someone could survive in those conditions. 
 
 The Navy sent divers from Little Creek to the crash site. Other ships assisting the joint search and rescue operation include the guided missile destroyer Jason Dunham, the amphibious transport dock Mesa Verde, the salvage vessel Grasp and a cargo ship, the Medgar Evers. 
 
 At the Norfolk hospital, Chris Goetz said he saw two Navy helicopters land and drop off two crew members each. 
 
 "They came in fast, that's why I noticed," said Geotz, an electrician who was working at the facility. "They started screaming. The first person was unconscious, and his arms were dangling. The second person had his hands bandaged, and his face was burned, but at least he held his hands up." 
 
 Navy officials said they would not identify the crew members who died until 24 hours after relatives were notified. 
 
 "Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to the families and the loved ones of those hurt and killed in today's crash," Flannery said. 
 
 Wednesday's crash was the second tragedy to strike the small MH-53 Sea Dragon community in as many years. It's also the latest accident for a workhorse airframe that the Navy had planned to retire more than five years ago. 
 
 According to the Naval Safety Center, the crash is the fourth major accident involving a Sea Dragon since 2012. MH-53s have crashed at a rate more than 10 times greater than other Navy helicopters over the past five years, according to the center's data. 
 
 Assigned to just two Norfolk-based squadrons, HM-14 and HM-15, Sea Dragons are equipped to detect and clear submerged mines - a critical capability in the Navy's mission of ensuring clear shipping channels abroad. The massive $50 million helicopters are also used to move people and cargo and are the Navy's preferred option for heavy-lift operations. 
 
 Sea Dragons were introduced to the fleet in the early 1980s. The service had planned to begin phasing them out in the mid-2000s, but without a viable replacement, it kept the Sea Dragons flying. The goal is to use them through 2025. 
 
 After a crash in July 2012 claimed the lives of two Norfolk-based sailors during a heavy-lift mission in Oman, the Navy uncovered systemic problems within the Sea Dragon community stemming from a lack of investment in the aging airframes. 
 
 "This didn't just happen overnight," Flannery said during a November interview with The Virginian-Pilot. "This was an atrophy over a long period of time, and the reason was, the Navy slowly but surely kind of forgot about the HM community.... It was absolutely tragic that it came to a head the way that it did." 
 
 After the Oman crash, the Navy invested millions of dollars to upgrade and better maintain its remaining 29 Sea Dragons, Flannery said in November. It added more than 100 maintenance personnel to the two Norfolk-based squadrons, enhanced pilot training and installed new leadership. 
 
 There are currently no plans to ground the Sea Dragons. 
 
 Asked Wednesday whether he had concerns about the safety of the MH-53s, Flannery said: "No, I don't. I do not." 
 
 Pilot reporters Cindy Clayton, Lauren King and Gary Harki contributed to this report. 
 
 Mike Hixenbaugh, 757-446-2949, mike.hixenbaugh@pilotonline.com ||||| (CNN) Thick fog forced authorities to suspend the air search Wednesday for seven Marines and four Army aircrew, feared dead after their Black Hawk helicopter crashed into waters off the Florida Panhandle. 
 
 The helicopter was first reported missing at about 8:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. ET) Tuesday. Hours later, searchers found debris around Okaloosa Island near Eglin Air Force Base, base spokesman Andy Bourland said. 
 
 This debris washed up on both the north and south sides of Santa Rosa Sound, which connects mainland northern Florida and a barrier island. 
 
 The air search is expected to resume midday Thursday, the spokesman said. A spokeswoman for the Coast Guard said that boats will continue scouring the waters throughout the night Wednesday, weather permitting. 
 
 Human remains have washed ashore in the area near Eglin. 
 
 Base spokeswoman Jasmine Porterfield didn't specify what was found, noting the search-and-rescue mission remained underway. Still, there was little hope for a miracle, with Gen. Martin Dempsey -- chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- expressing his condolences. 
 
 He said the crash was "a reminder to us that those who serve put themselves at risk, both in training and in combat." 
 
 "We will work with the services to ensure that ... their family members will be well cared for." 
 
 The Air Force, Coast Guard and civilian agencies participated in the intensive search focused on where they believe the aircraft went down, in waters east of the town of Navarre and the Navarre Bridge and near Eglin testing range site A-17. 
 
 Porterfield said approximately 100 people were involved in canvassing the ground and the waters, looking for debris: "It's a huge effort underway." 
 
 "We're working closely with all the parties involved to locate our Marines and the Army crew that were onboard," added Capt. Barry Morris, a spokesman for the U.S. Marines Corps Special Operations Command . "And, really, just our thoughts (and) prayers are with the Marines, the soldiers and the families of those involved in the mishap." 
 
 Second Black Hawk got back safely 
 
 No one is saying what caused the accident, with Eglin spokeswoman Sara Vidoni indicating only that there's no indication of anything suspicious. 
 
 There was heavy fog in the area when the aircraft went missing, though the Eglin spokeswoman said it's too early to tell whether that had anything to do with the crash. 
 
 "There is training in all conditions -- that's part of the military mission," Vidoni said. "They were out there doing what the military does." 
 
 According to Morris, the service members -- all men -- were involved in a seven-day training exercise of amphibious operations. It involved small boats and inserting and extracting Marines from the water via helicopter. Morris would not say in which phase of the training the Marines were on Tuesday night. 
 
 The UH-60 helicopter wasn't alone when it went down. A second Black Hawk -- assigned to 1-244th Assault Helicopter Battalion based in Hammond, Louisiana -- safely returned to the base, some 40 miles east of Pensacola. 
 
 The aircraft were both assigned to the Louisiana Army National Guard out of Hammond and taking part in what the U.S. military called a "routine training mission involving the Marine Special Operations Regiment" out of Camp Lejeune. 
 
 "Whatever the trouble was with the one aircraft, it did not involve the second helicopter that was participating in the exercise," Bourland said. 
 
 Seven Marines based out of Camp Lejeune 
 
 The Army aircrew members belonged to the Army National Guard unit out of Louisiana, part of a unit that Gov. Bobby Jindal said "have fought courageously overseas in defense of our nation and here at home." 
 
 By 11:15 a.m., relatives of all four of those guardsmen had been notified, though their names won't be released publicly until the Coast Guard recovers their bodies or calls off the search, said Col. Pete Schneider, a Louisiana National Guard spokesman. 
 
 "They have protected what matters most during times of crisis," Jindal said. "These soldiers represent the best of Louisiana, and we are praying for them and their families." 
 
 Morris said the Marines involved in the crash were all "highly-trained" members of that service's special operations command. They were based out of Camp Lejeune , an expansive North Carolina base that is home to about 170,000 active deputy, dependent, retired and civilian personnel. 
 
 Black Hawk helicopters are regularly used in U.S. Army missions. 
 
 The pilots were instructor pilots, Maj. Gen. Glenn Curtis told reporters. He said the whole crew had several thousand combined hours of operation flying the Black Hawk. 
 
 In January, two Marines died when their helicopter went down at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California. 
 
 And last March, an F/A-18C Hornet's pilot died after a crash about 70 miles east of Naval Air Station Fallon in western Nevada. 
 
 This week's crash involved a UH-60 Black Hawk, a twin-engine helicopter introduced into Army service in 1979 in place of the iconic UH-1 Huey. Other branches have modified the Black Hawk for their own uses, including the Navy's SH-60 (the Sea Hawk), the Air Force's MH-60 (the Pave Hawk) and the Coast Guard's HH-60 (the Jayhawk). 
 
 The Army's UH-60 helicopter, which has a maximum speed of 173 mph, has an airframe "designed to progressively crush on impact to protect the crew and passengers," according to the service. 
 
 As Morris, the Marine spokesman, pointed out, those who get on such aircraft or take part in other military exercises aren't always out of danger just because they're off the battlefield. 
 
 "We have a requirement to conduct realistic military training," he said. "And unfortunately this mishap happened."
– A Navy helicopter went down this morning about 18 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, reports the Virginian-Pilot. The Navy confirms that the chopper, a Sea Dragon, was one of two on a training mission and had to make an emergency landing in the water. Four of the five crew members were rescued, but two died later at the hospital. Another is in serious condition. The last member of the crew still has not been found, and the Navy and Coast Guard planned to search through the night. Sea Dragons are used mainly in heavy-lifting operations and in clearing mines from shipping lanes, notes the Pilot; the Navy has only 29 left, as they had been scheduled to be eliminated in the mid-2000s. Meanwhile, NBC reports that yesterday's helicopter crash in England, which killed four US servicemen, spread hazardous debris across "difficult terrain" in an area the size of a soccer field.