Washington, March 13 (IANS): The US Coast Guard on Thursday officially suspended its search for the 11 military personnel on board the helicopter that went down in dense fog off the coast of Florida.

"The decision to suspend (the search) is always difficult," a US Coast Guard statement said, according to a CNN report. "With heavy hearts, we have decided to suspend active search and rescue operations," the statement added.

The military said that it was now focused on recovering the helicopter and the bodies of all the victims.

According to a USA Today report on Thursday, the bodies of nine of the victims have been recovered and identified. The bodies of the two remaining victims were believed to be inside the wreckage of the helicopter, the report said.

The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter went missing on Tuesday night during a routine training exercise.

Search teams found the helicopter's debris in the Gulf of Mexico about six hours later and determined that the aircraft crashed near the Eglin Air Force Base in the US state of Florida.

However, foggy weather on Thursday hampered the operation to recover the bodies and the flight recorder lying 25 feet (about eight metres), in the water.

A dense fog advisory was in place for the region around the time the helicopter went missing.

The second UH-60 Black Hawk taking part in the training exercise landed safely.