By TARA COPP

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 circumstances additionally seemingly 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 approach again to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

Investigators discovered that a number of components seemingly 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 geared up with a flight information recorder able to surviving a crash.

The bounds of evening imaginative and prescient goggles even have been recognized as a possible issue 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 individuals. The goggles can cut back a pilot’s means to find out distance and could be degraded by climate or gentle air pollution.

The Marine helicopter was flying in icing circumstances with low cloud cowl that obscured the mountainous terrain alongside the flight path. The crew was utilizing evening imaginative and prescient goggles, which seemingly 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 protected distances wanted within the flight, investigators discovered.

The pilot and crew chief “most likely believed they were operating legally and within their comfort level,” investigators discovered.

Finally, although, investigators discovered that the pilot’s failure to keep away from the terrain was the first explanation for the crash. In addition they discovered that the commanding officer, who was relieved of obligation resulting from a lack of confidence in a capability to steer, mustn’t have given the crew approval to fly.

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

All 5 Marines aboard have been 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 further missions to compensate for final 12 months’s monthslong grounding of the V-22 Osprey fleet.

Initially Printed: Might 7, 2025 at 4:29 PM EDT