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 have all been notified.
Officials were still 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 (500,000 hectare) range in Arizona and southeastern California is favoured by the U.S. military and its allies for training because the hot, dusty conditions and craggy mountains replicate Afghanistan's harsh environment and the clear weather 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 only been two other aviation training accidents in the Navy and Marine Corp involving seven or more deaths, according to the Navy.
Retired Marine Col. J.F. Joseph, an aviation safety consultant, said Marine aviators are always at risk as they train to become combat ready.
"It's an unfortunate consequence of the high tempo of operations," he said. "They're out there working on the edge trying to exploit the maximum capabilities of the aircraft and their tactics. Just by the virtue of that, in becoming combat ready, these unfortunately are not uncommon occurrences."
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Associated Press writer Jeff Wilson in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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