MOBILE, Ala. – The bodies of the pilot and the co-pilot of a Coast Guard helicopter that crashed into an Alabama bay have been recovered, a spokesman said Thursday night.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the bodies of Lt. Cmdr. Dale Taylor and Lt. j.g. (junior grade) Thomas Cameron were found about 300 feet from where the aircraft crashed into the water Tuesday with four men aboard, the Press-Register reported.
Earlier Thursday the MH-65C Dolphin was pulled from the bottom of the bay by a salvage barge, however the crew members were not inside the cabin.
A recovery operation for the final crewman missing, Petty Officer 3rd Class Andrew Knight, will resume in Mobile Bay on Friday morning after the search was suspended for the night.
"We saturated 95 percent of Mobile Bay for nearly two days with both aircraft and boats to thoroughly cover the search area. The decision to suspend the active search was terribly difficult," said Capt. Donald J. Rose, commander of Coast Guard Sector Mobile, in a statement provided to Fox News.
"Now, we must shift our focus to continuing salvage and recovery operations. As we continue to recover wreckage, we will look for the missing crewman."
The body of Chief Petty Officer Fernando Jorge was recovered Tuesday night following the crash, which happened during a training flight.
The chopper went down about three miles from shore in the bay -- a 413-square-mile inlet jutting into Alabama from the Gulf of Mexico.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
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