US | FBI Elite FBI Agents Fell to Their Deaths Christopher Lorek, Stephen Shaw fell from helicopter into water By Evann Gastaldo Posted May 21, 2013 6:28 AM CDT Updated May 21, 2013 7:47 AM CDT Copied Federal Bureau of Investigation badges are seen on a table at a graduation ceremony for FBI Special Agents, attended by President Bush, not pictured, in Quantico, Va., Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) The two FBI agents who were killed in a training accident Friday fell to their deaths while rappelling from a helicopter onto a ship 12 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, an agency spokesperson revealed last night, per the AP. Special Agents Christopher Lorek and Stephen Shaw, members of the elite Hostage Rescue Team (which famously rescued an Alabama boy from a kidnapper's underground bunker earlier this year), were involved in a maritime counterterrorism exercise when the helicopter "encountered difficulties," per the rep. "The agents tragically fell a significant distance [into the water] and suffered fatal injuries." A former FBI hostage negotiator who deployed with the team calls its agents "really the best of the best as far as civilians. Their only counterpart would be something like Navy SEAL Team 6 or US Army Delta. There is no other police or FBI SWAT team that's their equal." The Washington Post goes far in backing up that claim: It explains that members of the team live their lives at the ready, able to deploy within four hours of notice; they are able to scuba dive and parachute, and are "expert marksmen." In 30 years, fewer than 300 agents have joined the team's ranks. Read These Next And ... 23,000 pages of Epstein files are now out. Trump commuted his sentence. Now he's headed back behind bars. White House summoned Lauren Boebert over support of Epstein petition. Breaking Bad creator's new show is wowing critics. Report an error