(Gray News) – The search for eight service members feared dead following a training accident off the coast of Southern California has come to an end.
That’s according to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Officials concluded the mission following an extensive 40-hour search and rescue effort.
Seven missing Marines and one Navy sailor are now presumed dead, according to a statement from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
The accident took place on Thursday.
The service members were among a crew of 16 aboard an amphibious assault vehicle that had just completed a training exercise when it began taking on water about a half-mile from Navy-owned San Clemente Island, off of San Diego.
The 26-ton, tank-like craft quickly sank in hundreds of feet of water — too deep for divers — making it difficult to reach.
In addition to the eight missing service members, one Marine was reported dead and two others were injured.
All of the Marines aboard were attached to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at nearby Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. They ranged in age from 19 to early 30s and all were wearing combat gear, including body armor and flotation vests, Lt. Gen. Joseph Osterman, commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said earlier this week.
The craft was one of 13 amphibious assault vehicles that participated in the routine exercise and was heading back to a Navy ship when the accident happened.
Troops on board two other amphibious assault vehicles responded quickly but couldn’t stop the sinking, Osterman said.
The vehicle, nicknamed an “amtrac” -- short for “amphibious tractor” -- was designed to be buoyant and had three water-tight hatches and two large troop hatches. The Marines use the vehicles to transport troops and their equipment from Navy ships to land.
The vehicles have been used since 1972, and have been continually refurbished.
On Friday, the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. David Berger, suspended waterborne operations of all of its more than 800 amphibious assault vehicles across the branch until the cause of the accident is determined. He said the move was out of “an abundance of caution.”
It was the deadliest of several accidents involving amtracs that have occurred during Camp Pendleton exercises in recent years.
In 2017, 14 Marines and one Navy sailor were hospitalized after their vehicle hit a natural gas line at the camp, igniting a fire that engulfed the landing craft.
And in 2011, a Marine died when an amphibious assault vehicle in a training exercise sank offshore of the camp.
Copyright 2020 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. CNN and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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