Marine Copter Repair Time Up in Air

The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters based at the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station will remain on the ground, possibly for weeks, while inspection teams remove suspect gearboxes from the aircraft and send them back to the factory to be checked, Marine officials said Monday.

The first of two teams, composed of representatives from Sikorsky Aircraft, which builds the helicopters, and Navy inspectors, will arrive at the Tustin base Thursday. A second team will arrive March 5, a military spokesman said.

A Navy official said last week that the military hoped to have the helicopters back in service immediately by replacing the suspect gear assemblies with unflawed ones held in Navy inventory. Now, officials say, they do not know how long the copters will be grounded.

But Lt. Col Jerry Shelton of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station said Monday that replacement parts for the gear assembly are not available at Tustin, making it necessary to remove the parts from the aircraft and ship them to the Connecticut-based Sikorsky plant for inspection and possible repairs. The parts will then be sent back to Tustin to be installed in the helicopters. About 45 CH-53Es are based at Tustin.

The entire fleet of 90 CH-53Es was grounded Feb. 21 when a flaw was found in the gearbox on the No. 2 engine. The discovery was made by inspectors at the Sikorsky plant during the overhaul of one of the transmissions. The three-engine helicopters cost up to $24 million each and can lift 16 tons.

Shelton said it was his understanding that inspections of Super Stallions based overseas had already begun.

Marine spokesmen have said that the flaw in the gearbox has not been responsible for any of the six previous accidents of the CH-53E that have killed 24 Marines. Seventeen others have been injured in accidents involving the aircraft.

In the most recent Super Stallion accident, five Tustin Marines were killed Jan. 8 in a crash near the Salton Sea.