2 Israeli Officers Killed in Helicopter Crash off Haifa

Two Israeli army officers were killed and a third injured, Monday evening, when a navy helicopter crashed off the coast of Haifa.

The helicopter crashed into the sea off the Naval Research Center in the Bat Galim neighborhood of Haifa.

At dawn today, Tuesday, the Israeli army announced that two officers were killed and a third moderately wounded when a military helicopter crashed off the shores of Haifa.

The Israeli army said that the helicopter was an "Ataliev" or "bat” and plunged and hit the seawater while returning from a training mission on Monday evening.

The commander of the Israeli Air Force instructed to halt the exercises on Tuesday and ordered the formation of a commission to investigate the incident.

Hebrew media reported that an Israeli helicopter had crashed in the Mediterranean off the coast of Achziv, north of Haifa, where the pilot and two crew members were found.

The Russia Today (RT) reporter stated that the Israeli military censor imposed a gag on publishing information about the incident while Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urgently left a session in which he was after receiving information about the event from the Military Secretary.

The reporter added that it was announced that 3 crew members had been rescued and taken to Rambam Hospital; information indicated that one of them was seriously injured, while accurate information about the health status of the others was not yet available.