Lt Lily-Mae Fisher was among three Royal Navy crew members killed when a Merlin Mk4 helicopter crashed near Okehampton in Devon during a training exercise on Wednesday at about 03:45 BST. Fisher, 31, died alongside Petty Officer Owen Green, 24, and Lt Cmdr Chris Gayson, 42, in an incident that has left the Commando Helicopter Force mourning three of its own.
The loss has landed with unusual force because the crash happened in training, not in combat, and the cause has not been made public. That gap is now at the center of the story as families, colleagues and senior military figures wait for answers about how a routine exercise turned fatal in the early hours.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed the names after the crash, identifying the helicopter as a Merlin Mk4 and the crew as Royal Navy members serving with the Commando Helicopter Force. Air Vice-Marshal Lee Turner RAF said the deaths of three “deeply capable and professional aviators” had caused “profound sadness” across the Joint Aviation Command and the Commando Helicopter Force, adding that they would be “greatly missed” and that thoughts were with the families and others affected.
Tributes also came from the Princess of Wales, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, underscoring the weight of the loss beyond the base itself. Colonel Will Penkman called it “a great tragedy” and said the force had lost “three members of the CHF family yesterday,” describing them as cherished professionals with “bright futures ahead of them.”
What follows now is the formal investigation. The Civil Aviation Authority said the Defence Accident Investigation Branch will examine the incident, and that inquiry is the only way to explain why a training flight near Okehampton ended with three dead and an entire unit trying to make sense of the morning.
