Weather and night vision goggles were likely factors in Marine Corps helicopter crash, report finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — The crash of a Marine Corps helicopter final 12 months that killed 5 service members was finally brought on by pilot error, however the usage of evening imaginative and prescient goggles and unsafe flying situations additionally probably have been components, in accordance with an investigation report obtained by The Related Press.

The CH-53 Tremendous Stallion crashed Feb. 6, 2024, throughout a late evening flight when it hit a mountain close to Pine Valley, California, on its method again to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

Investigators discovered that a number of components probably led to the crash. However as with a number of earlier army aviation accidents, investigators needed to make some assumptions as a result of the CH-53 was not outfitted with a flight knowledge recorder able to surviving a crash.

The bounds of evening imaginative and prescient goggles even have been recognized as a potential factor within the deadly collision of an Military Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet close to Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport in January that killed 67 folks. The goggles can scale back a pilot’s capability to find out distance and could be degraded by climate or gentle air pollution.

The Marine helicopter was flying in icing situations with low cloud cowl that obscured the mountainous terrain alongside the flight path. The crew was utilizing evening imaginative and prescient goggles, which probably didn’t give them the clear image wanted to keep away from a crash into terrain, investigators discovered.

The precipitation and clouds in all probability degraded the goggles’ efficiency and probably gave the crew a false sense that they have been sustaining the secure distances wanted within the flight, investigators discovered.

The pilot and crew chief “almost definitely believed they have been working legally and inside their consolation stage,” investigators discovered.

Finally, although, investigators discovered that the pilot’s failure to keep away from the terrain was the first reason behind the crash. In addition they discovered that the commanding officer, who was relieved of responsibility as a consequence of a lack of confidence in a capability to guide, shouldn’t have given the crew approval to fly.

The Tremendous Stallion vanished in the course of the in a single day flight on its method again to Miramar from Creech Air Drive Base. The helicopter was found within the morning close to the mountain group of Pine Valley.

All 5 Marines aboard were killed within the crash: Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Donovan Davis, 21, of Olathe, Kansas; Sgt. Alec Langen, 23, of Chandler, Arizona; Capt. Miguel Nava, 28, of Traverse Metropolis, Michigan; Capt. Jack Casey, 26, of Dover, New Hampshire; and Capt. Benjamin Moulton, 27, of Emmett, Idaho

In interviews contained within the report, a number of members of the squadron stated that the crews had been stretched skinny as a result of their unit needed to fly extra missions to compensate for final 12 months’s monthslong grounding of the V-22 Osprey fleet.