[V_TWIN]

Ping

[BobL]

Sounds like the Houthi’s have upgraded their weapons again.

[Sacajaweau]

Very sad. I was so hopeful.

My best buddy was part of a helicopter team. He passed away last year. I miss my buddy.

[paterfamilias]

Eternal Father, grant, we pray,
To all Marines, both night and day,
The courage, honor, strength, and skill
Their land to serve, thy law fulfill;
Be thou the shield forevermore
From every peril to the Corps.

(Marine Corps verse, The Navy Hymn)

[EEGator]

RIP

[CIB-173RDABN]

What was so important that a helicopter had to be flying in the worse storm to hit southern California in decades?

[dforest]

Something doesn’t smell right with all these people dying like this.

They are covering up something.

[Reno89519]

RIP. As this was a training mission, I think it is fair to ask why they were flying in and into a major storm, the largest of the season?

[Baldwin77]

What is going on in our military. Sounds like 5 more victims of DEI (DIE).

[Red Badger]

Just a guess, but I think they hit a microburst that caused a sudden loss of lift and they flew into the side of the mountain................

[logi_cal869]

Returning from a night training mission near Vegas during a storm in mountainous terrain and 5 US Marines dead flying a CH53 Super Stallion.

There’s something missing from this equation, like the JA who failed to check the weather & scrub the return flight to Miramar...

[Gay State Conservative]

Yikes! So it went down in a big storm? Don't the Marines have access to top notch weather forecasting?

[Sacajaweau]

We may find that there was a malfunction...but Dems will insist it was due to climate change....like Marines have never flown their helicopters in bad weather before.

[Sacajaweau]

For the families sake, I am glad they were found so we can have proper burials for these heroes.

[Yo-Yo]

For all of the V-22 Osprey bashing on this forum, the MH-53E Super Stallion has an accident rate of 5.96 per 100,000 flight hours, where the MV-22 has an accident rate of 3.27 per 100,000 hours.

[Tennessee Nana]

On FOX they said the helicopter had been found with nobody aboard Where were the men found ???

[Chainmail]

Helicopters are friggin' dangerous, period. In the year I was assigned to a helicopter training squadron in 1968-9, we lost 11 dead in one month while Boeing-Vertol was trying to fix the rear ends of the helicopter falling off at the 410 joint (410 inches back from the datum point at the nose of the aircraft). The saying we had at the time was that "a helicopter is 10,000 parts flying in close formation, looking for a chance to crash".

During my time in the Marine Corps, I was there in the vicinity for over a dozen helicopter accidents/shot down. Helicopter crashes are almost always fatal to everyone riding in them.

[bgill]

Prayers for the families.

[freepersup]

The last ping came from an elevation of 5,300'. It's likely that the crash site is at or near this area and elevation.

The nearby community of Mt. Laguna sits at 6,000', and Cuyamaca Peak, the highest terrain elevation in these mountains, tops out at 6,515'.

Stating the obvious, the pilot in command would have been clear of the ground if a flight altitude of 7,000' or higher was maintained until clear of this mountain range.

That being said, if a mechanical problem developed in flight, maintaining a necessary altitude for the area terrain would likely transition into a tradeoff, sacrificing altitude to maintain control.

Empty weight: 33,226 lb (15,071 kg) Max takeoff weight: 73,500 lb (33,339 kg)

The US Navy operates routinely in this area as they task SEAL trainees with land navigation exercises and use the same type of rotary wing a/c as the USMC, so it would seem that the flight altitude vs terrain risks would be well known to aircrews in the aviation community.

Paraphrasing, aircrews refer to rotary wing a/c as a device comprised of 28,000 parts trying to tear itself apart from the moment of engine start to the moment of engine stop.

Admitting that there are lots of qualifying words in my post.

I was both a static line and freefall jumper in the US Army, and I and my teammates spent a lot of time inside rotary wing aircraft, from climbing to jump altitude to transportation from point A to point B. Personally, for me, I was relieved to jump out of the helicopter.

(UH-1, CH-53, CH-54, UH-60)

RIP

[beaversmom]

Pretty good discussion here regarding Marines and helicopters and this incident:

https://www.reddit.com/r/USMC/s/gxr52WUs5y