HH-1N crash in Yuma AZ

[ROHO]

Marine Corps search-and rescue helicopter crashed during a training flight over southwest AZ, killing four people on board officials said. The HH-1N Huey crashed about 20 miles north of Yuma on Thursday. Three Marines and one Navy sailor were pronounced dead at the scene.

[rholley]

God bless them and their families.

[thedrifter]

Sad day!

Ellie

[jetdawgg]

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u17/jetdawgg/clip_image002.gif

[thedrifter]

3 Marines, 1 sailor killed in helicopter crash
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Aug 17, 2007 15:37:26 EDT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Three Marines and a sailor were killed, and one Marine was injured, after their HH-1N Huey search-and-rescue helicopter crashed Thursday afternoon near Yuma, Ariz., Marine Corps officials said Friday.

The four victims were pronounced dead at the scene about 12:30 a.m. Friday, 1st Lt. Rob Dolan, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma spokesman, said in a statement. The victims’ names won’t be released until after their families are notified, Dolan said.

The injured Marine, who was not identified, was taken by one of the air station’s search-and-rescue helicopters to Yuma Regional Medical Center and was listed in stable condition as of late Friday morning, he said.

The helicopter and crew, which belongs to Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, was returning to the air station about 4 p.m. Thursday after completing a “routine” training flight when it crashed, said Sgt. Ryan O’Hare, a Yuma spokesman. The helicopter crew was training at Yuma Proving Ground, in southwest Arizona north of Yuma, when it went missing.

Border Patrol and Air Force aircraft from Luke Air Force Base had joined with the station’s other SAR helicopters in the overnight search-and-recovery mission.

Marine Corps officials are investigating the cause of the crash.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Corps IDs 5 helicopter crash victims
By Bob Christie - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Aug 18, 2007 14:32:38 EDT

PHOENIX — Two U.S. Marine Corps pilots, a crew chief and a Navy corpsman were identified Saturday as the victims killed in the crash of a search-and-rescue helicopter near the Colorado River.

Maj. Cesar Y. Freitas, 35, and Capt. Bradley E. Walters, 33, were killed when the HH-1N Huey they were piloting went down about 20 miles north of Yuma, Ariz., on Thursday afternoon, the Marine Corps said.

Also killed in the crash were Sgt. Charles L. Osgood, 27, the crew chief, and Navy Hospitalman 2nd Class Brendon O. Sandburg, 25.

Their hometowns were not released by the Marine Corps.

The three Marines were assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. Sandberg was assigned to the Branch Medical Clinic in Yuma and was a naval air crewman.

The lone survivor of the crash, Marine Lance Cpl. Brian D. Stahlhut, 21, is listed in fair condition at Yuma Regional Medical Center, the military said.

The aircraft, one of four search-and-rescue helicopters assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, was last heard from at about 4 p.m. MST Thaursday, Marine Sgt. Ryan O’Hare said. The wreckage was discovered early Friday, and the cause of the crash was under investigation.

The aircraft was flying alone on a routine training mission near the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground, a sprawling 1,300-square-mile military reservation along the Arizona-California border used to test combat systems and helicopters.

The bright red search-and-rescue Hueys are familiar sights in southwestern Arizona and southeastern California, where they fly daily in support of military operations and do civilian rescues, said Lance Cpl. Daniel Angel, the community and media relations chief for the Yuma base. They respond to civilian rescues within 100 miles of Yuma.

The Yuma facility is the home base for four Marine Harrier squadrons and an F-5 squadron used in an aggressor role for training pilots in air-to-air combat. Besides the resident squadrons, the site is used by Marine aviators around the nation for training and is the world’s busiest Marine Corps air station.

In 2005, a Marine Corps Harrier jet crashed into a neighborhood near the air base but the pilot had only minor injuries and no one on the ground was hurt.

Hueys, first produced in 1956, are Vietnam War-era workhorses. New aircraft are scheduled to replace them beginning in 2008.

In a statement, base commander Col. Ben Hancock expressed sympathy for the families of the lost airmen. Their “devotion to duty, patriotism and selflessness are hallmarks of search and rescue crewmembers,” Hancock said. “They were outstanding members of this command and as a close-knit family we mourn their loss.”

Ellie

[jchretien]

I was there. On Spot. It was a sad time recovering the crash. Let them be never forgotten.

[OLE SARG]

Rip Men!!

Semper Fi,