Two Marine Corps CH-53 transport helicopters collided off the coast of Hawaii early Friday morning. Each helicopter was carrying six people, all of whom are feared dead.

The U.S. Coast Guard is currently searching a debris field about 2 1/2 miles away from the coast. No survivors or remains have yet to be found, but rescue teams did find an empty life raft. It’s unclear what caused the crash.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, the weather has been doing everything but cooperating with the U.S. military’s rescue team. According to numerous reports, they’ve been complicating the search for the 12 missing American service members.

This from ABC News:

Rescuers battled winds of up to 23 mph and waves up to 30 feet as they searched for 12 Marines who are missing after two helicopters they were in crashed off the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

“It makes finding things incredibly difficult,” Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Scott Carr said.

The Coast Guard was notified late Thursday of the crash by a civilian who saw the aircraft flying then disappear and a fireball. Someone else reported a flare in the sky, Carr said. It was not clear if the fireball and the flare were the same.

The search has included Air Force units as well as a Honolulu Fire Department rescue boat and Coast Guard cutters. Two Navy ships, the USS John Paul Jones and the USS Gridley, were also participating with a Navy squadron of SH-60 helicopters.

The Coast Guard was keeping people out of a wide zone that spanned about 30 miles of shoreline, citing danger from debris. The zone extended from the shore to 8 miles off the coast.

Weather experts said that the surf “peaked Friday” and is slowly declining. A high surf warning though remains in effect.

SECOND UPDATE: Six of the 12 missing Marines have been identified.

Dillon Semolina and Capt. Kevin Roche of Minnesota, Chris Orlando of Massachusetts, Matthew Drown and Maj. Shawn Campbell of Houston and Ty Hart of Oregon.

THIRD UPDATE: All 12 Marines — four officers and eight enlisted men — have been identified by the Marine Corps Times (and the Associated Press):

Maj. Shawn M. Campbell
Cpl. Matthew R. Drown
Lance Cpl. Ty L. Hart
Cpl. Thomas J. Jardas
Capt. Brian T. Kennedy
Cpl. Christopher J. Orlando
Capt. Kevin T. Roche
Sgt. Adam C. Schoeller
Sgt. Dillon J. Semolina
Sgt. Jeffrey A. Sempler
Capt. Steven R. Torbert
Sgt. William J. Turner

As for the search/rescue, this is the latest, also via the Marine Corps Times:

Search efforts for the two heavy-lift helicopters and the 12 men aboard continue to be hampered by a high-surf warning. Rescuers battled waves up to 30 feet Saturday, which dispersed debris and complicated the search.

FOURTH UPDATE: The search party tirelessly looking for the 12 missing were forced to change its movement patterns due to interference from a green laser.

A green laser originating from Haleiwa Beach Park struck a search aircraft Saturday night and forced the crew to change course. Luckily, the crew was not exposed to the laser light and did not need to land.

Aircraft pilots relying on night vision to navigate the skies can be easily blinded by green laser light. If things had gone differently, there would have been a third crash to investigate near Oahu.

Did a laser play a role in the CH-53 collision that left 12 Marines missing? According to Coast Guard Capt. James Jenkins, this theory remains speculative and untested. Right now, the Coast Guard is more concerned about locating survivors than investigating the cause of the crash.

“We are still searching for survivors. That’s an important point to make,” Jenkins said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is sending a ship to conduct an underwater search using sonar equipment.

We’ll update this post as we get more information.