Four Marines Are Killed in Crash of Presidential Fleet Helicopter

A military helicopter used in the presidential fleet crashed Wednesday, killing all four crew members aboard, authorities said.

The bodies of the crew were all found in the main fuselage, “which was bent out of shape and mangled,” said Lt. Patrick Murphy, spokesman for the Charles County Sheriff’s Department. Debris was strewn around the crash scene.

“The entire area reeks of aircraft fuel,” Murphy said. “It is over your shoe tops.”

The VH-60N Black Hawk helicopter was on an inspection flight after undergoing maintenance when it crashed in a heavily wooded area across the Potomac River from the Marine base in Quantico, Va., said Capt. Steve Manuel, spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters in Washington.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

Copters in the fleet are used to ferry the President and other dignitaries throughout the Washington area, but all of those aboard the one that crashed Wednesday were Marines, Manuel said.

The flight originated at Quantico, where the presidential fleet--Marine Helicopter Squadron 1--is based.

The VH-60N is a modified version of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter used by the Army and Navy. It is built by the Stratford, Conn.-based Sikorsky Aircraft Division of United Technologies Corp.

Sikorsky spokesman William Tuttle said the Marine Corps ordered nine of the $10.6-million helicopters in 1988.