17 Rescued After W.Va. Navy Helo Crash

They kept warm by starting fires and huddling inside cold-weather gear after the crash of their Navy helicopter Thursday on a remote mountainside in West Virginia.

Some suffered from broken bones and strained backs. Snow drifted 5 feet deep in places, and the temperature dipped below 20 degrees.

Guided by a pair of coordinates and pencil flares, rescuers finally reached the 17 stranded service members -- nearly a dozen hours after the crash of their Norfolk-based MH-60S Knighthawk.

Two medics lowered from overhead tended to the injured, and the rescuers, who traveled by snowcat and snowmobile, evacuated passengers throughout the night.

Late Friday morning, a relieved Capt. Steve Schreiber announced that the last were en route to a hospital. No one had died, and no one was seriously injured.

"For us, this is good news," said Schreiber, the commodore of Helicopter Sea Combat Wing Atlantic in Norfolk. "It is a miracle to have no catastrophic injuries."

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The ordeal had begun nearly 24 hours before about 20 miles south of Lewisburg, W.Va. The helicopter -- carrying two Marines, 11 sailors and four National Guardsmen -- crashed around 2 p.m. It had just completed a routine training exercise and was to return to Fort Pickett after stopping at Camp Dawson near Kingwood, W.Va.

But it never got there.

Around 6 p.m., a West Virginia Army National Guard search-and-rescue crew heard the downed helicopter's calls for help.

Night had fallen. Schreiber called the weather "arduous" and air rescue impossible. Local responders pitched in to help. Residents offered snowmobiles. Nearby Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort loaned two snowcats, which are used to groom ski trails. Still, Schreiber said, it took them two hours to reach the crash site, located three miles from the nearest road.

Schreiber called the evacuation effort heroic.

Nine passengers were treated at a hospital and released, the Navy said. Three others were admitted for treatment and four were taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville.

He described the pilot as experienced and those aboard as "very well-trained, very well-prepared. We train these missions every day and every night."

Schreiber had not talked directly to anyone involved in the crash and knew few details.

But, Schreiber said, "if all 17 survived, the pilot had some control" of the helicopter as it went down.

Visibility was poor. The aircraft was filled to capacity, but Schreiber said that would not have contributed to the crash.

The cause remains under investigation, Schreiber said. The aircraft is from Helicopter Sea Combat Support Squadron 26 at Norfolk Naval Station.