South Korea's Navy said Saturday it recovered the fuselage of a helicopter that crashed into the sea off the country's east coast earlier this week during joint drills with the United States.

The fuselage of the Lynx helicopter was found at about 3:13 p.m., and will be moved to a military base in Jinhae, 410 km south of Seoul, for investigation to figure out the cause of the crash, according to the Navy.

A Navy official said that it has not yet been confirmed whether the chopper's flight data and voice recording devices were also recovered.

The helicopter fell into the East Sea late Monday, with three soldiers on board, the bodies of whom were later recovered.

The ill-fated chopper was participating in the combined maritime exercise in the East Sea and was around 67 km south of the maritime border with the North when it crashed. The exact location of where the part was found has yet to be made available. (Yonhap)