The Associated Press wire service has published a report saying that a military helicopter operating off of a Canadian frigate went missing while taking part in a NATO operation in the Mediterranean.

Global News has learned Canadian military leaders are in high level meetings trying to figure out what happened, following an initial lockdown on communication with media as the early reports emerged.

A Twitter account run by the Canadian Forces said it had lost contact with a CH-148 Cyclone helicopter that had been deployed on the HMCS Frederiction for Operation Reassurance.

That’s the mission to deter Russian aggression in Central and Eastern Europe.

While out on a NATO exercise, the tweets from the military say they lost contact with the helicopter and are now conducting search and rescue efforts.

A spokesperson for NATO confirmed that there has been an incident involving a helicopter from a ship under NATO command but did not identify the member military operating the helicopter.

A search and rescue mission is underway, the spokesperson added.

The wire service report cited Greek state TV as saying the helicopter went missing in the sea between Greece and Italy, and that other NATO allied frigates are conducting a search operation.

Greek authorities said they have not been asked to help as the area is far off the Greek mainland and outside the area where the country has responsibility for search and rescue operations.

https://globalnews.ca/news/6883989/nato-helicopter-crash-canadians/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

What a tragedy...

Oh that's bad

Search operations still ongoing.