This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Three marines lost after a US military aircraft crashed off the Queensland coast are not believed to have survived, and the mission to find them has become a salvage and recovery effort, the US Marine Corps says.

The MV-22 Osprey aircraft was involved in a “mishap” at about 4pm Saturday while conducting exercises off Shoalwater Bay near Rockhampton, where the biennial Talisman Sabre joint US and Australian military training exercise is under way.

Twenty-three of the 26 marines on board were rescued within an hour, while the search for the missing crew members continued throughout the night and into Sunday morning.

However there was no expectation the three missing marines would be found alive. The search for them has been called off.

The US navy and Marine Corps, which is receiving help from the Australian defence force, warned the salvage and recovery effort could take several months.

“Operations have now shifted to recovery efforts,” a statement from the III Marine Expeditionary Force said. “The next of kin for the three missing marines have been notified.”

III MEF Marines (@IIIMEF) Keeping our families informed is of utmost importance to the Marine Corps. We have completed notification to the three Marines' families. pic.twitter.com/sVqqOGTBTj

III MEF Marines (@IIIMEF) Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. All other personnel are accounted for and safe.

The aircraft that crashed had launched from USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship, “and was conducting regularly scheduled operations when the aircraft entered the water”, the statement said.

“The ship’s small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts.

“The circumstances of the mishap are currently under investigation.”

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like an aeroplane.

They are the primary assault support aircraft for the marines, but have been involved in a series of high-profile crashes in recent years.

In December, five crew members of an Osprey had to be rescued after their craft made a shallow-water landing off Okinawa after a training mishap during a night training flight in which a rotor blade cut a refuelling hose and left the aircraft in pieces.

No one was killed but the accident sparked anger on the Japanese island – a strategic outpost of US power – and protests against the deployment of the aircraft to the island.

In January, three US soldiers were injured in a “hard landing” of an Osprey in Yemen.

And in April 2000, 19 people were killed when an Osprey crashed in the US.

Two US soldiers killed in Taliban suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan Read more

The US president, Donald Trump, currently on a “working holiday” at a New Jersey golf club he owns, has been briefed on the latest Osprey incident.

“The president will be having meetings with chief-of-staff General Kelly, other White House advisers and lawmakers while at Bedminster over the next two weeks,” a White House official told reporters.

The Australian defence minister, Marise Payne, said she has briefed Malcolm Turnbull and spoken with the US defence secretary, Jim Mattis, to offer Australia’s support in any way that can be of assistance.

“I can confirm no Australian defence force personnel were on board the aircraft,” Payne said in a statement.

“Our thoughts are with the crew and families affected.”

Australian Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report