THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 1996 TAG: 9605110286
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. LENGTH: Long : 116 lines
Two Marine Corps helicopters were making a mock assault on a heavily wooded bog when they collided in the predawn darkness Friday, killing 14 Marines and critically injuring two.
The accident, between an AH-1W SuperCobra gunship and an H-46E Sea Knight, came as both choppers swooped over the swampy Carolina coast about 2 a.m., during massive land and sea war games involving U.S. and British forces.
The games - the largest maneuvers undertaken by the two countries in decades - involve 53,000 troops and 53 American and British warships. The exercise began April 25 at East Coast military bases and in the waters off the Virginia Capes.
Friday's accident came as Marines took part in an amphibious assault on ``enemy'' territory on the beaches and swamps of Camp Lejeune, a sprawling Marine Corps reserve on the New River.
The Sea Knight's passengers were attacking a remote woodlands dubbed ``Vulture'' by war games organizers. Once on the ground, the Marines were to fan out through the forest, secure the area, then attack a simulated city nicknamed ``Combat Town'' four to five miles away.
The SuperCobra, its two-man crew wearing night-vision goggles, was assigned to secure a landing zone for the transport when the choppers smacked into each other, Marine Corps spokesmen said. It was unclear later Friday why the two crossed paths.
``We had half a moon last night. Visibility was good,'' said Maj. Steve Little, a spokesman at Camp Lejeune.
Fisherman David Milbourne heard the crash while pulling shrimp nets overnight. ``It sounded a lot like an 18-wheeler crashing into a wall,'' he said. ``We had heard helicopters flying overhead all night, but after the noise everything went silent.
``It was dead quiet.''
The choppers were part of Medium Helicopter Squadron 266, attached to the nearby New River Marine Corps Air Station. They were operating from the Norfolk-based helicopter carrier Saipan, which was stationed off North Carolina.
The two survivors, in critical condition, were taken to the hospital at Camp Lejeune, the Pentagon said.
An exact count of the dead had been elusive, as manifests listing the number aboard the Sea Knight were contradictory, spokesmen said. The Marines withheld the names of the victims pending their families' notification.
Crews retrieved all of the bodies by 6 p.m. Many were extensively burned by a fire that broke out upon impact, said a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Dental records will be needed to identify the remains, he said.
Recovery of the injured and dead was complicated by the hostile terrain and the fact that the helicopters burst into flames after the collision, officials said.
The crash appeared to be the worst suffered by the Marine Corps since May 1989, when another Sea Knight dropped into the sea off Okinawa, Japan, killing 14.
``Our hearts go out to the families, the friends, the loved ones of those who lost their lives,'' President Clinton said at the White House.
A stalwart of troop and cargo movement for decades, the tandem-rotor Sea Knight is used by the Navy and Marines and is a frequent sight over Hampton Roads.
Over the past 10 years, 31 of the craft have been involved in accidents causing death or more than $1 million in damage. Four Sea Knights have been lost in such accidents since last October, including the helicopter lost Friday.
The SuperCobra, a modified version of attack helicopters introduced during fighting in Vietnam, is armed with rockets and a turret-mounted cannon. The Marines have lost 12 in major crashes in the past decade.
Friday's wreck boosted the number of Marines killed in air accidents this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, to at least 19 - a leap from the six killed in fiscal 1995 and three killed the previous year.
This year's crashes prompted the Marines to order a two-day halt to all but essential flight operations in March, so that the Corps could review its safety rules.
``There is a great sense of esprit de corps and unity in the Marine Corps, and when you lose someone you've lost part of yourself in a way,'' said Marine Capt. Rick Long, 35, of Kansas City, Mo., a spokesman for the war games.
``But you've got to keep going. You've got to keep plugging forward. You've got to pull yourself up by the bootstraps.''
The accident came at about the halfway point of the Combined Joint Task Force Exercise 96, which has seen Americans from all four branches of the military join their British counterparts in an attack on an imaginary country named Korona, located along the Atlantic coast from Virginia to Georgia.
Scenarios for the wargames have Korona attacking and occupying a smaller nation called Kartuna, represented by Camp Lejeune. A force spearheaded by American troops lands in Kartuna to evict the invaders.
The games combine the Navy's periodic Joint Task Force Exercise, the Army's Market Square games and Great Britain's Purple Star maneuvers in a vast, coordinated exercise manned by 38,000 Americans and 15,000 British troops.
Twenty-six Norfolk-based ships in the Enterprise carrier battle group and the Saipan amphibious ready group are participating, along with 27 British ships.
The exercises also involve air force planes from both countries and Army airborne troops, who next week are scheduled to undertake the largest parachute drop since World War II. MEMO: Staff writer Earl Swift contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
This SuperCobra and the Sea Knight helicopter that it collided with
burst into flames on impact. The SuperCobra, its two-man crew
wearing night-vision goggles, was assigned to secure a landing zone
for the Sea Knight when the choppers hit, a Marine Corps spokesman
said.
Graphic of helicopters involved
Map
by CNB