The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday said it recovered four personnel with “non-serious” injuries after their Sikorsky MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crashed in Alaska during a training flight.
The Coast Guard said watch standers at its Arctic District command center were alerted to the crash near Sitka, Alaska, around 10:07 a.m. local time on Monday, after the crew’s personal locator beacon was activated. Sitka Fire and Rescue personnel located the crew around 11 a.m. and flew them to nearby Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center.
“The cause of the incident is not yet known,” the Coast Guard said in a statement posted to social media. “A formal investigation will be conducted to determine the circumstances surrounding the event.”
Added Rear Admiral Bob Little, commander of the USCG Arctic District, “We are incredibly relieved our crew members survived with only minor injuries. We are grateful for the swift response by the Sitka Fire and Rescue who assisted us during this critical time.”
Per the branch, a helicopter and crews have been repositioned from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak to Air Station Sitka to continue activities in the region.
In November 2023, a Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk crashed during a search and rescue mission, injuring all four crew members, two seriously. It took at least six agencies nearly four weeks to retrieve the wreckage.
About $2.3 billion in 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act is reserved for new Coast Guard MH-60 aircraft and simulators.
Alaska’s High Accident Rate
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have long sought safety improvements for Alaskan airspace.
Per the NTSB, between 2008 and 2017, the state’s total aircraft accident rate was nearly 2.35 times higher than the rest of the U.S. Its fatal aircraft accident rate was about 1.34 times higher, and Alaska since 2016 has accounted for 42 percent of U.S. deaths from small commercial aircraft crashes. That figure was 26 percent in the early 2000s.
The state’s poor safety record is often blamed on outdated or insufficient infrastructure that is not suited to its harsh, unpredictable weather. In February 2025, a Bering Air Cessna 208B Grand Caravan crashed, killing the pilot and all nine passengers, after disappearing from air traffic control (ATC) radar. Investigators found that the plane was overweight before takeoff.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in August called Alaska’s aircraft accident rate “unacceptable” and vowed to improve it. Under the Transportation Department’s $12.5 billion Brand New ATC System (BNATCS) effort, the agency intends to install 110 additional weather stations and 64 new weather camera sites in Alaska, which it has designated one of the project’s five main focus areas.
The FAA in May published a request for information (RFI) regarding potential replacements for the Alaska Flight Service Automation System, which handles key tasks such as flight planning and distributing notices to airmen (NOTAMs). Under BNATCS, it seeks to replace it with the Alaska Automation Capability, described in the RFI as “modern, web-based cloud automation system capable of meeting the demands of today and the future.”