Two agents with the FBI's elite hostage rescue team apparently fell to their deaths while on a counterterorrism training exercise off Virginia Beach Friday.

An FBI spokeswoman said Tuesday that the two were rappelling down a rope from a helicopter to a ship that was about 12 miles off the coast when the helicopter ran into some kind of trouble.

Agent Christopher Lorek, 41, and Special Agent Stephen Shaw, 40, fell a "significant distance," Special Agent Ann Todd said.

Both men were a part of the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group and were on a weeklong training trip in Hampton Roads when they fell Friday. The agents were airlifted to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where they were pronounced dead.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Quantico-Based-FBI-Agents-Killed-in-Training-Accident-208068911.html