A US Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopter declared an emergency while flying over the Red Sea near Saudi Arabia on Monday before disappearing from publicly available flight-tracking data.
The Sikorsky helicopter, using the call sign VVHR512, was flying near Yanbu on Saudi Arabia’s western coast when it issued the emergency declaration at approximately 5:20 p.m. ET.
Flight-tracking data showed the aircraft at an altitude of around 475 feet at the time. Its displayed altitude later fell to zero before the helicopter stopped appearing on the tracking service.
As of Monday evening, the US Navy had not issued a public statement confirming what happened to the aircraft, and no information had been released regarding the condition of its crew.
The cause of the emergency also remained unclear.
While some unverified reports on social media claimed the helicopter may have crashed, there was no official confirmation of a crash at the time of reporting.