text: 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 ||||| Toby Melville / Reuters A Pave Hawk helicopter, military personnel and emergency services attend the scene where another helicopter crashed near the village of Cley in Norfolk, eastern England. 
   
   Four American airmen were killed when a U.S. military helicopter carrying live ammunition crashed into a nature reserve on the east coast of England on Tuesday, spreading debris including "hazardous" bullets across an area the size of a soccer field, police said. 
   
   The Air Force HH-60 Pave-Hawk chopper — a modified version of the Army's Black Hawk — was practicing flying at low altitudes when it went down, the U.S. officials said. It was assigned to RAF Lakenheath, the British base that is also home to the U.S. Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing. 
   
   The airmen were named as Capt. Christopher S. Stover, Capt. Sean M. Ruane, Tech. Sgt. Dale E. Mathews, and Staff Sgt. Afton M. Ponce. 
   
   "The actual crash site I would describe as an area of debris on difficult terrain on the marsh about the size of a football field,” Chief Bob Scully of Norfolk Police said early Wednesday, adding that the area had been cordoned off from locals because the crashed aircraft had strewn live ammunition across the crash site on impact. 
   
   "Bullets are scattered about the area of the site," he said. "So that is hazardous to members of the public." 
   
   He added that another helicopter had been taking part in the training mission. 
   
   “Because they were both airborne the most immediate aircraft to provide assistance or be available at the scene was the other aircraft,” Scully said. 
   
   He added that at the present time British police had jurisdiction over the investigation because the crash happened on English soil. 
   
   "At the present time the police on behalf of her majesty’s coroner are responsible for conducting an investigation into deaths that have occurred here in the U.K.," he said. "Once we are satisfied and the coroner is satisfied we will then pass the management of the scene to the air investigation branches of the U.K. and U.S, military. 
   
   “They will carry out a more technical investigation that may last for some considerable time,” he added. 
   
   Police have been assisted by investigators from both Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Air Force. 
   
   “(We) have been conducting a full scene assessment in difficult terrain and that has allowed us to plan for the activities today which will involve further close examination and scene examination and preserving evidence from the crash site,” he said. 
   
   The bodies were removed from the scene early Thursday after the British coroner conducted a daylight assessment of the scene. 
   
   Sadly, we confirm the loss of four of our Liberty Airmen. Please keep them in your thoughts. http://t.co/S4CdD6yrzb #JollyDown — RAF Lakenheath (@48FighterWing) January 8, 2014 
   
   The commander of the 48th Fighter Wing, Colonel Kyle Robinson paid tribute to his colleagues and thanked the British people for their support. 
   
   "They have made the ultimate sacrifice while training to save the lives of others," he said, adding that as a husband and father he could not imagine the heartbreak the families were experiencing. 
   
   "I speak for the entire wing when I say we're thinking of you, we're here for you and we're praying for you," he said. 
   
   Although the base is owned by the RAF, it has been used by the United States Air Force for over 50 years. 
   
   NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski, Courtney Kube and Marc Smith of NBC News contributed to this report. 
   
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target: – 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.