Mechanical Problem Encountered, Marines Say : CH-53E Helicopter Lands in Farm Field

A Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter, the type that is the target of a congressional investigation, made a precautionary landing in an Irvine farm field Tuesday after encountering a mechanical problem, military authorities said.

None of the three men aboard nor anyone on the ground was injured during the emergency, according to Lt. Timothy Hoyle, a Marine Corps spokesman.

The helicopter was returning to Tustin Marine Corps Air Station about 2:30 p.m. when the pilot, Capt. Paul Dittmeier, reported a vibration in the aircraft, said Marine spokeswoman Gunnery Sgt. Peg Cauley.

Dittmeier landed the aircraft in a cultivated field near the intersection of Culver Drive and Bryan Avenue, within sight of the mammoth hangars at the Tustin base.

Also aboard the helicopter, Cauley said, were Maj. John L. Sayre and Cpl. T Helback, the crew chief. The Marines said the helicopter had been on a routine mission.

According to Hoyle, maintenance and repair crews from the base were examining the helicopter to determine what went wrong and what repairs would be needed before it can be flown out of the field.

The Super Stallion is the largest helicopter in the free world and can carry as many as 55 combat troops or lift 16 tons of equipment.

Since 1982, the helicopter has been involved in six major crashes in which 19 Marines have been killed, 12 of them from squadrons based at Tustin.

Recent Crash Killed Four

Following the most recent crash, in which four crew members died during a training flight last May 9 at Twentynine Palms, a request by Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach) for a congressional investigation of the Super Stallion was approved. The staff conducting the inquiry has not yet filed its report.

The first crash occurred June 1, 1985, when a Tustin-based Super Stallion exploded and plunged into the ocean while lifting a truck from a ship moored off San Clemente Island. A report on the accident--in which four Marines died--said destructive vibration in the copter was triggered when a sling attachment point on the truck failed.

Five months later, the Super Stallions were grounded for inspection of their tail-rotor-drive systems after one caught fire and crashed, killing six Marines, while lifting a howitzer during an exercise at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Another Tustin Super Stallion reportedly struck a cable and crashed in Okinawa on July 13, 1985, killing four crew members, while on Aug. 25, 1985, another Marine died when a CH-53E from New River, N.C., crashed-landed in a Laguna Hills field after experiencing an engine fire. The aircraft had been en route to Twentynine Palms.

No one was injured in the sixth Super Stallion crash, which occurred while a helicopter was hovering at the Tustin base. An investigation attributed the mishap to pilot error.