Missing US military chopper found, fate of five Marines on board unknown
US marines line up on beach
A United States military helicopter with five US Marines on board that went missing late on Tuesday (February 6) has been found, said the US officials, but thefate of the personnel is still unclear.
The Marine Corps said that the helicopter failed to arrive in California as scheduled. It was travelling from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in southern California. The Marine Corps said in its statement that "the aircraft was reported overdue" indicating that it hadgone missing.
The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing coordinated search and rescue efforts with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and the Civil Air Patrol.
The exact fate of the US military personnel on boardis still unknown and a search effort has been launched. There have been a number of accidents involving US military aircraft in the past year. In November, a V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashed off the coast of Japan. Eight airmen were left dead in the accident. Another Osprey aircraft crashed in August in Australia killing three Marines.
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In a separate incident, three military personnel were killed in a collision of two helicopters that were returning from Alaska. The accident took place in April last year.
Reports in US media said that the San Diego County Sheriff's Department was informed of the situation at 1 am (local time). The helicopter was due to land in San Diego.
The helicopter has gone missing in the Pine Valley area. It is about 44 miles from San Diego.
The Sheriff's Department has launched a search and rescue mission along with the Marine and Civil Air Patrol teams which specialise in mountain searches
“The weather is so bad out there with snow and low cloud coverage that we could not get helicopters out there,” said Lt Matthew Carpenter, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.
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The missing helicopter is a CH-53E Super Stallion. It is used to carry heavy cargo and personnel.
(With inputs from agencies)