Steve Sax's 33-year-old son, John J. Sax, has died. He was only 33.

On Wednesday, Sax's family dealt with devastating news about John, 33, who died on Wednesday.

According to reports, John was among the five crew who died when their aircraft crashed during their training mission in California. The former Los Angeles Dodgers player released a statement to confirm the devastating news, saying that his son had always dreamed of becoming a pilot since he was a kid.

"For those of you that knew Johnny, you saw his huge smile, bright light, his love for his family, the Marines, the joy of flying airplanes and defending our country! He was my hero and the best man I know, there was no better person to defend our country," the athlete told CNN affiliate KCAL/CBS.


Sax's former team also penned a heartfelt message to offer thoughts and condolences to John's bereaved family and the loved ones of the other Marines.

The mourning patriarch and his family are yet to detail John's last moments and the injuries he sustained that led to his death. Information about the funeral also remains unknown.

John J. Sax Dead: What Happened to Marines Crew?

The US Marine Corps has since addressed the shocking incident in a statement on Thursday. It confirmed that five US Marines succumbed after the military aircraft crash.

It already started equipment recovery efforts and a probe to look into what happened to the MV-22B Osprey.

Aside from John, Cpl. Nathan E. Carlson, Capt. Nicholas P. Losapio, Cpl. Seth D. Rasmuson, and Lance Cpl. Evan A. Strickland also died in the accident.

Maj. Gen. Bradford J. Gering, commanding general of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, has since spoken up about the tragedy and delivered a message of condolences to the Marines' families.

John C. Miller, Commanding Officer of Marine Medium Tiltrotor (VMM) Squadron 364, also expressed their heartbreaks after losing the crew.

"This is an extremely difficult time for VMM-364 and it is hard to express the impact that this loss has had on our squadron and its families. Our primary mission now is taking care of the family members of our fallen Marines," he went on.

The crash happened only a few days after another US Navy helicopter also crashed on Thursday and left one member of the Navy injured.

Due to these, the Navy shared a news release saying that all non-deployed units would have a safety pause "in order to review risk-management practices and conduct training on threat and error-management processes."