By JULIE WATSON and LOLITA C. BALDOR
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Navy helicopter crashed Thursday and everybody on board survived close to the California desert website the place a day earlier a Marine Osprey went down, killing all 5 folks aboard, authorities mentioned.
Four folks had been aboard the Navy chopper, which went down round 6 p.m. on a coaching vary whereas conducting a routine coaching flight from Naval Air Facility El Centro, in response to the bottom. The helicopter is an MH-60S Seahawk assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 3 primarily based at Naval Air Station North Island.
One crew member acquired an damage that was not life-threatening and was taken to a hospital, the bottom mentioned.
The crash website was initially described as being about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Yuma, Arizona.
A day earlier, all 5 Marines on board a tiltrotor plane had been killed when it crashed within the California desert close to the Arizona border, the Marine Corps mentioned Thursday.
The MV-22 Osprey went down at 12:25 p.m. Wednesday throughout coaching in a distant space in Imperial County close to the group of Glamis, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) east of San Diego and about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Yuma, Arizona.
The plane was primarily based at Camp Pendleton with Marine Aircraft Group 39 and was a part of the third Marine Aircraft Wing headquartered at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.
“We mourn the loss of our Marines in this tragic mishap,” Maj. Gen. Bradford J. Gering, commanding basic of the third Marine Aircraft Wing, mentioned in a press release. “Our hearts go out to their families and friends as they cope with this tragedy.”
The assertion mentioned as a matter of coverage, the Marine Corps could be contacting members of the family earlier than figuring out those that had been killed. Efforts to recuperate gear had been underway and an investigation into the reason for the crash has began. No extra particulars had been supplied within the Marine Corps assertion.
The Marines had been collaborating in a routine live-fire coaching over their gunnery vary within the Imperial Valley desert, mentioned Marine Maj. Mason Englehart, spokesperson for the third Marine Aircraft Wing.
The Osprey, a hybrid airplane and helicopter, flew within the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan however has been criticized by some as unsafe. It is designed to take off like a helicopter, rotate its propellers to a horizontal place and cruise like an airplane.
Versions of the plane are flown by the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force.
Prior to Wednesday’s crash, Osprey crashes had precipitated 46 deaths, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Most just lately, 4 Marines had been killed when a Marine Corps Osprey crashed on March 18 close to a Norwegian city within the Arctic Circle whereas collaborating in a NATO train. In 2017, three Marines had been killed when their MV-22 Osprey crashed off Queensland, Australia. In 2015, one Marine was killed and 21 had been injured when their MV-22 Osprey caught fireplace throughout a “hard landing” in Hawaii.
The Osprey is a joint undertaking of Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing.
Its improvement was marked by lethal crashes, together with an April 2000 accident in Arizona that killed 19 Marines.
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Baldor reported from Washington.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”