The Marine Corps at that time did not fly RH-53s. The Corps received its first RH-53Ds in 1990 when the Navy started to transition to MH-53Es. The Marine choppers, CH-53Ds, that were used to train for the mission were all left in the States. The RH-53s belonged to the Navy, were stored on the hangar deck of the Nimitz and received very little maintenance. Adequate time required for check flights and tweaking of the helicopters by their mechanics and crew chiefs wasn't factored in. Two or three days prior to the mission a fire alarm was pulled on the hangar deck of the Nimitz and most if not all of the helicopters were covered with PKP - purple k powder - a highly corrosive fire extinguishing chemical. Rudimentary inspections, another mistake, followed, pronouncing the helicopters as ready for the mission. The reason that the helicopter that struck the C-130 had to lift off was that it had a flat nosewheel and couldn't ground taxi in the sand. The whole thing was one big cluster f***
And this, in turn, was caused by an extremely low morale after the Vietnam War, exacerbated by the Commander-in-Chief that did not stand firmly behind the troops. Had Carter chosen the best people for the job and given them a free hand, this would not have happened.
Not true. Crew selection began before Thanksgiving, 1979, and were training since then. Also, there was one Navy pilot, and the rest Marine. I have heard one pilot was Air Force, this article falsely claims, or infers, it was a mixed crew, that is entirely false, these men trained for months together before taking off for Desert One. The final selection of pilots was not complete until Christmas 79 or so, and members of all branches were tested and weeded out of the selection.
As for unfamiliarity with the aircraft, the BIMS indicator indicates that nitrogen has leaked from the spar of the rotor blade. In layman's terms, that means the spar cracked/blade broken/helicopter fall down go boom.
What is interesting to note, however, is that in all recorded incidents of a BIMS indicator going off, is that all inspections of the blades for each recorded instance, shows there were never any cracks. The pilot who left his aircraft after this warning went off was unaware of Sikorsky's findings, and had every reason to not take the chance.
The embassy guards were fully capable of repelling the attack but were stopped for fear of causing an international incident.
IMHO if they would have waxed the first 10 or so fence climbers the whole incident would have ratcheted down real fast.