A U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion heavy lift helicopter crashed in the vicinity of El centro, California at approximately 2:35 p...
A U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion heavy lift helicopter crashed in the vicinity of El centro, California at approximately 2:35 pm local time on Tuesday.
All the four crew members on board died in the crash.
USMC said the helicopter belonged to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing based out of MCAS Miramar and was on a routine training flight.
Earlier on the same day, a USMC AV-8B Harrier crashed during takeoff from Djibouti Ambouli International Airport, Djibouti, East Africa, just after 4:00 p.m. local time.
The jet was supporting Alligator Dagger, a training exercise in international waters off the coast of Djibouti.
The aircraft was assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162 and embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.
Recent years have seen a considerable rise in mishaps involving USMC aircraft.
USMC crash rate steadily climbed in the last three years, from 3.29 per 100,000 flights hours in 2015 and 2016 and then to a staggering 4.74 per 100,000 hours in 2017.
The back to back war in Afghan and Middle East have worn out the aircraft and helicopters flown by US armed forces.
The situation was worsened further by the Sequestration budgets cuts which caused delayed acquisition of new aircraft, reduced training flights for pilots and reduced aircraft maintenance, which put the fleet in a worse condition.
During the 2017 Dubai Air Show, a USMC CH-53E displayed its poor state to the public with leaking overhead hydraulic lines in the cabin.
The Sikorsky CH-53E fleet was introduced in the 1980s and have already out flown its service life. The readiness level of the around 140 Super Stallions flown by Marines are less than 40 percent at a given time.
USMC is introducing Readiness recovery initiatives across every platform in its fleet, but will take until 2020 to repair the damage.
Successor to the aged CH-53E fleet, the new CH-53K King Stallion is planned to enter USMC service from 2018.
