The US Army announced this on Wednesday a helicopter located in a difficult to access area of California which has been actively searched since the previous day, but the crew of five soldiers are still missing.
The soldiers left Creech Air Force Base in Nevada on Tuesday and headed to another air base in Miramar in Southern California his helicopter “was reported missing.”according to a statement from the Marine Corps.
“The device was located by civilian authorities in Pine Valley, California,” the Army said in another statement the next day, without specifying whether there was a chance of finding survivors or whether remains were found next to the aircraft.
The helicopter is a CH-53E Super Stallion.
The 3rd Marine Wing conducts search and rescue operations” and “uses ground and aviation units to locate the crew in coordination with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and multiple federal, state and local agencies,” the institution added added.
Last year there were a number of accidents involving US military aircraftincluding that of a V-22 Osprey aircraft off the coast of Japan in late November that killed eight people.
Five US soldiers died when a helicopter crashed in the Mediterranean during a training exercise earlier that month, while another Osprey crash in Australia in August killed three Marines.
With information from AFP.
ORP
