U.S. Navy plane crashes in Eastern Shore; 1 dead, 2 injured

OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) — A U.S. Navy aircraft with three people aboard crashed in waters near the Eastern Shore boundary of Virginia and Maryland on Wednesday evening, killing one, authorities said.

Lt. Cmdr. Rob Myers, a public affairs officer with Naval Air Force Atlantic, told The Associated Press the plane was conducting routine flight operations in the vicinity of Wallops Island, Virginia, when it went down around 7:30 p.m.

Two injured people were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard and one was found dead in the aircraft, U.S. Navy E2-D Hawkeye, Myers said.

The plane, an advanced tactical airborne early warning aircraft, is based out of Naval Station Norfolk and assigned to an East Coast Airborne Command and Control Squadron.

Ryan Whittington, a spokesman for Maryland’s Ocean City Fire Department, told The Associated Press that it and other agencies were on the scene after the plane went down in Chincoteague Bay near the community of Stockton.

Whittington said a volunteer fire department in Stockton was the first to respond after getting a call around 7:30 p.m., adding other agencies were assisting.

He said waters in the bay were relatively calm as divers from his fire department and one other helped rescue two people from the plane. He added that they were taken to a hospital but he had no further information on their condition.

The identities of the three were not immediately released by the Navy or others.

“One person was stuck in the plane,” Whittington said, adding crews were working to remove the third person.

A statement released by Myers at Naval Air Force Atlantic in Virginia said the two crewmembers have injuries that aren’t considered life-threatening. The name of the deceased crew member will be released once next of kin is notified, WAVY-TV reports.

Whittington said emergency responders were staged at a George Island Landing, an area just on the Maryland side of the line with Virginia on the west side of Chincoteague Bay. The Eastern Shore location is about 150 miles (240 kilometers) east-southeast of Washington, D.C.