Good news, to be sure, but one interesting sidelight. Many of the crash survivors were taken to a hospital in Charlottesville, Va, which was placed on lock-down when they arrived—a bit unusual, to be sure. I can’t think of other incidents where a hospital was locked down during the arrival of casualties from an aircraft crash, or other large-scale event.
The most likely explanation? It was a Navy chopper, and most of the personnel onboard (if not all of them) were naval personnel. I’m guessing that the majority of the passengers were SEALs out of Little Creek.
The Navy has already announced that the injured personnel were participating in a SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) exercise. For years, DoD sponsored a major SERE drill called Ridge Runner in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This was probably the 2010 version of Ridge Runner, or a similar event.
BTW, good call to lock down the hospital. Don’t need the media wandering the halls and inadvertently photographing SOF operators.
One reason, certainly. Another reason is that simply the navy didn't want the press asking the survivors what happened before the navy themselves asked the survivors what happened.
In a mishap like this, everyone must be properly debriefed before any official, public statement can be made.