Federal Policy

Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk Crashes Near Sitka, Alaska With Four Aboard

A training accident involving a federal search-and-rescue asset raises questions about operational readiness at a time when Coast Guard aviation budgets remain under congressional review.

The Congressional Times · June 22, 2026

A U.S. Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crashed near Harbor Mountain in Sitka, Alaska on Monday, June 22, 2026, during a scheduled training flight carrying four personnel, according to an official announcement published by the U.S. Coast Guard and reported by The Hill. The MH-60 Jayhawk is a twin-engine medium-range search-and-rescue aircraft operated by the Coast Guard for maritime rescue and law enforcement missions across U.S. coastal and inland waterways.

Sitka Fire and Rescue crews responded to the crash site at approximately 11:00 a.m. local time, according to The Hill's reporting on the Coast Guard announcement. The condition of the four personnel aboard had not been confirmed in the initial public release. The Coast Guard had not, as of the time of this writing, issued a follow-up statement specifying the nature or cause of the crash.

The MH-60 Jayhawk fleet is a central component of Coast Guard aviation operations in Alaska, a district that covers more than 33,000 miles of coastline — the longest of any Coast Guard district in the United States, according to the Coast Guard's publicly available district profile. Harbor Mountain is located on Baranof Island, in the vicinity of Sitka, which is approximately 95 miles southwest of Juneau.

The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security and is subject to congressional oversight through the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Funding for Coast Guard aviation assets, including MH-60 Jayhawk maintenance and operations, is appropriated annually through the Homeland Security Appropriations Act. The FY2026 Homeland Security appropriations figures relevant to Coast Guard aviation are publicly available through the Office of Management and Budget and congressional appropriations committee records.

Several material facts remain unknown at this time. The condition of the four personnel aboard has not been publicly confirmed. The cause of the crash has not been determined. A formal accident investigation will be conducted by the Coast Guard and potentially the National Transportation Safety Board; NTSB accident investigation records, when completed, are published at ntsb.gov and would provide the authoritative account of contributing factors. The precise coordinates of the crash site and the identities of those aboard have not been released as of publication.

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