Coroner Doubts That Pilot Error Caused Helicopter Crash That Killed 5 Marines

The deputy coroner at the scene of a fiery helicopter crash that killed five Tustin Marines said Saturday that he didn’t believe the cause was pilot error because it appeared that the aircraft fell straight down.

Imperial County Deputy Coroner Donald H. Cole said: “If it were pilot error, somebody would have gone ahead, moving forward and would have struck something.

“If he was going forward, then he would make an impression into the dirt. It’s desert terrain, soft sand. . . . But from what I saw there was no forward action. All indications I could see--it came from above, straight down.”

Lt. Shawn Cooper, a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, said she could not comment on the cause of the crash that occurred Thursday night during a training session at the Salton Sea Test Range in the Imperial Valley.

String of Accidents

The crash was the latest in a string of accidents and fatal crashes over the last two years involving the Marine Corps’ “Super Stallion” CH-53E helicopter. The helicopters, the largest in the United States, are manufactured by the Sikorsky Aircraft Co. of Stratford, Conn. They are known as “the workhorses” of the Marine Corps because each can haul as many as 55 troops and a crew of three.

On Friday, Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach), who had started a congressional inquiry into the Super Stallion crashes, said that first reports suggested pilot error in Thursday’s crash.

Neither Badham nor Sikorsky representatives could be reached for comment on Saturday.

Defective Parts

The history of the CH-53E includes crashes, deaths and recalls because of defective parts.

The first fatal accident involving the CH-53E occurred in June, 1984, when four Marines died after the helicopter exploded while lifting a truck from a ship off San Clemente Island. An investigation determined the crash was caused by vibration in the helicopter when a sling attachment point on the truck failed.

In December, 1984, the entire fleet of Super Stallions was grounded after a Nov. 19 crash at Camp Lejeune, N.C., that killed six Marines. In that accident, the tail rotor drive system caught fire as the helicopter was lifting a howitzer.

On July 13, 1985, a Tustin-based CH-53E in Okinawa struck a cable and crashed, killing all four crew members.

On Aug. 25, 1985, a CH-53E from New River, N.C., crash-landed in a Laguna Hills field after an engine fire, killing one Marine.