The bodies of the three people reported missing after a Navy helicopter crashed in a field south of Corpus Christi, Texas on Wednesday at around 8 p.m. have been found. Only one of the four crew members in the helicopter has been rescued and rushed to the hospital, while little was still known on the fate of the other three when the rescue team first arrived at the scene. The search continued despite the dark outside with flashlights and spotlights.

Eye witnesses reported the Navy MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopter suffered an explosion before the crash: “Suddenly I saw a red-glowing fireball shoot hundreds of feet up into the air” J.D. Batten said to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. “I heard a giant boom a second later. It was then dead silent and I couldn’t hear the helicopter anymore.”

It has been a hard mission for the rescue team, as the dark set in and the crash site was covered in flames, which the firefighters had to put up with for some time. The initial search perimeter was set up at about 200 yards around the crash site, but it was later expanded considering the debris was scattered.

According to Ed Mackley, public affairs officer for the Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command, the bodies of the three missing crew members have been found at around 2:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, after hours of continuous search.

The helicopter, which was assigned to the Helicopter Countermeasures Squadron 15, was apparently on a routine training mission from the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, when a series of technical difficulties possibly led to the explosion and the crash of the helicopter.