Weather, night vision safety glasses Probably factors in the fatal marine -chopper crash

Washington (AP/Azfamily) -The crash of a Marine Corps helicopter last year, in which five service members, including a Marizona navy, were killed, was ultimately caused by pilot errors, but the use of night vision glasses and unsafe flight conditions was probably also factors.

The CH-53 superstallion crashed on February 6, 2024 during a nightly flight when he met a mountain near Pine Valley, California on the way back to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

All five marines on board were killed in the crash:

• Sgt. Alec Langen, 23, from Chandler, Arizona
• Lance Cpl. Donovan Davis, 21, from Olathe, Kansas
• Captain Miguel Nava, 28, from Traverse City, Michigan
• Captain Jack Casey, 26, from Dover, New Hampshire
• Captain Benjamin Moulton, 27, from Emmett, Idaho

In March last year, Southwest Airlines organized a funeral service for Langen, where Freedom One carried his coffin house to Arizona. The airline officials said that the navy wanted to join as a aircraft mechanic after completing his service as an aircraft mechanic. Langen married his wife Casey just a month before his death.

Langen received several awards during his service, including the Navy and Marine Corps' performance medal, a good medal of behavior, the global war against Terrorism Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and two ligaments for the provision of SEA Service. Since his death, his family has set up a non -profit organization to help military families experience the same kind of grief.

The investigators found that several factors probably led to the crash. But as with several earlier accidents of military aviation, the investigators had to make some assumptions, since the CH-53 was not equipped with a flight data recorder that could survive a crash.

The boundaries of night vision glasses were also identified as a potential factor for the fatal collision of a Black Hawk helicopter of the army and a passenger jet near Reagan Washington National Airport in January, in which 67 people were killed. The protective glasses can reduce the ability of a pilot to determine the distance and can be deteriorated by weather or light pollution.

The Marine helicopter flew under icing conditions with a low cloud cover, which covered the mountainous area along the flight path. The crew used night vision glasses, which probably did not give them the clear picture that was necessary to avoid falling into the site, the investigators found.

The investigators say that the rainfall and the clouds have probably worsened the performance of the glasses and that the crew may have given the crew a false feeling that they maintain the safe distances required in flight.

The pilot and crew boss “most likely believed that they would be legally and at their level of comfort,” said the investigators.

Ultimately, however, the investigators found that the pilot's failure to avoid the terrain was the main cause of the crash. They also learned that the commanding officer, who was freed from duty due to a loss of trust in his leadership, should not have given the crew approval to fly.

The super hungry disappeared during the night flight on the way back to Miramar from the Creech Air Force Base. The helicopter was discovered in the morning near the Pine Valley mountain community.

In the interviews contained in the report, several members of the squadron said that the crews had been stretched thinly because their unit had to fly additional missions to compensate for the months of the V-22 fishing fleet of last year.

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