US Navy Aircraft Carrying 11 Crew And Passengers Crashes In Philippine Sea
In this U.S. Navy handout, two MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters attached to the Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 22 land on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1), following a search and rescue mission of a private aircraft during humanitarian relief efforts following the landfall of Hurricane Maria on Sept. 28, 2017, on the island of Dominica. Getty Images / U.S. Navy Handout

A U.S. Navy aircraft carrying 11 members, including crew and passengers, crashed into the ocean just southeast of Okinawa, which is a Japanese prefecture comprising more than 150 islands in the East China Sea between Taiwan and Japan's mainland.

The incident occurred at 2:45 p.m. local time (12:45 a.m. EST) Wednesday, as posted by the U.S. Seventh Fleet official website.

Check out the tweet here.

The rescue operations are underway and according to a report in Mirror, at least three people are suspected missing.

According to the U.S. Seventh Fleet official website, the aircraft was en-route to the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), which is currently operating in the Philippine Sea, located in the western part of the North Pacific Ocean.

Latest reports said the search and rescue operations are being carried out by USS Ronald Reagan. However, the reason behind the unfortunate crash is yet to be determined.

The names of all the crew members and passengers are currently being withheld pending next of kin notification.

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