SAN DIEGO — Two Marine Corps helicopters collided over a remote section of the California desert during a nighttime exercise, killing seven Marines in one of the Corps’ deadliest training accidents in years.
There were no survivors in the latest in a series of crashes involving troops from Camp Pendleton, officials said Thursday.
Two Marines were aboard an AH-1W Cobra and the rest were in a UH-1 Huey utility helicopter when the crash occurred Wednesday night near the Chocolate Mountains along the California-Arizona border, said Lt. Maureen Dooley with Miramar Air Base in San Diego.
Six of the victims were from Camp Pendleton — the largest base on the West Coast — and one was from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona. Their identities will not be released until their families are notified.
Officials still were scrambling after sunrise to gather evidence at the crash site in a remote section of the Yuma Training Range Complex.
The sprawling 1.2 million-acre range in Arizona and southeastern California is favored by the U.S. military and its allies for training because of its hot, dusty conditions and craggy mountains that replicate Afghanistan’s harsh environment and clear weather that allows for constant flying.
It was the fifth time since March that Marine Corps aircraft have crashed during a training exercise in California. In the past five years, there have been only two other aviation-training accidents in the Navy and Marine Corps involving seven or more deaths, according to the Navy.
The weather was mild Wednesday when the helicopters were flying as part of a two-week standard training called “Scorpion Fire” that involved a squadron of about 450 troops from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
The wing has about 17,500 Marines and sailors, including six helicopter squadrons that fly both Cobras and Hueys. It’s headquartered at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and also has personnel stationed at Camp Pendleton and Yuma.
The helicopters collided at 8:45 p.m. near dunes at the edge of the Yuma range. Ground troops were in the area, but they were not affected, said Gunnery Sgt. Dustin Dunk, a spokesman at Marine Corp Air Station Yuma. The station is about a 1½-hour drive from the accident site.
Part of the exercise involved having helicopters low on fuel descend to ground troops that have set up a refueling outpost, Dunk said. He did not know whether that’s what the pilots were doing at the time of the crash, which occurred about an hour before the range was to shut down for the evening.
