Wouldn’t have been the first aircraft to go down in that area due to a Pacific storm with heavy winds and probable icing conditions. A better route may have been the Banning pass area then WSW to the I-15 corridor to Miramar. Still very dicey for a low flyer in that weather.
The flight should have waited for better weather.
I backpacked the Pacific Crest Trail from US/MX border north on the local area footpath for five consecutive years, and in those mountains, USMC and USN rotary wing aircraft encounters were on an almost daily occurrence.
An AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter crashed in almost the exact same location as where the last known ping location for the CH 53 emitted. There’s a warning sign for hikers to stay on the trail as there is scattered munitions in the area that were never recovered.
Still no word on the condition of the helicopter. Was it a controlled landing, or a crash landing? If it was a controlled flight at cruise speed into terrain, there isn’t going to be a need to look for the aircrew. If there was a crash landing, wouldn’t there be injuries preventing some of the crew from setting out on a cross country hike to civilization?
The SAR Teams ought to have reached the ping site by now and should be reporting the facts on the ground as encountered.
Why no mention of communications from the crew? Who today, doesn’t carry a cell phone on their person, especially military aged personnel, and why no communication from the pilot or copilot using the aircraft’s avionics system?
Something does seem amiss in all of the reporting or lack of facts in the reporting.