NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — One of the two U.S. service members who died in a Navy training flight last week in Alabama served in Norfolk for several years.
Navy Lt. Rhiannon Ross, a 30-year-old Michigan native, served three years with Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26 in Norfolk before joining Florida-based Training Squadron Two in 2018, WOOD TV in Michigan reports.
Ross was the instructor during the routine training flight out of Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Florida last Friday, when the T-6B Texan II aircraft crashed in Foley, Alabama. The plane crashed into a subdivision in the area, but no injuries on the ground were reported.
Lt. Rhiannon Ross (left) and Coast Guard Ensign Morgan GarrettThe other service member aboard was U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Morgan Garrett, 24, of Weddington, North Carolina. She was a student aviator.
“Their spirit, friendship, and devotion to their country will not be forgotten. May they rest in peace,” the Navy said in a news release Sunday.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation at this time.