San Diego

A 19-year-old sailor was fatally injured Tuesday when he was struck by the tail rotor of a helicopter on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship New Orleans, the Navy announced.

The sailor, whose name was not released pending notification of his family, was airlifted at 10:58 a.m. to the Navy Hospital in Balboa Park with massive head injuries, Navy spokesman Cmdr. David Dillon said.

The sailor, a junior enlisted man, was not a resident of California, a Navy official said. He died at 12:02 p.m.

The New Orleans was off the coast of Southern California participating in a Third Fleet exercise known as FLEETEX 88-1. It involved 23 Navy ships, two Coast Guard vessels, four Canadian ships, and 17,000 sailors and Marines, Dillon said.