The helicopter was engage in night training operations while around 7:40 pm local time the Coast Guard received reports from a boat in the area that a Coast Guard helicopter had gone down into the water. A search discovered the helicopter in 13 feet of water mired in mud.
The cause of the accident was attributed to pilot error, with a lack of established flight manual procedures for inadvertently entering instrument flight conditions, a lack of recent over water night and night vision goggle flying by the pilot identified as contributing factors.