Helocopter crash

[Sasquatch Jim]

  40 foot surf on the north shore of Oahu might make serious surfers happy but not the Marines.
 Last night two Sea Stallion helicopters on a night training mission collided a couple of miles off the North shore rear Haleiva.
  Witnesses on the beach said they saw a huge fiery explosion which would have been the helos colliding.
 Shortly after, they saw a flare which would mean to me that someone was alive in the water at that time.
 Coast Guard and Navy units are combing the area looking for 12 missing marines.
 The high waves and surf make it very hard to see anyone in the water.  If alive they are in all likelyhood seriously injured
 and any attempt to make it ashore in 40 foot surf could be lethal.  They have found one empty life raft so far.

[canuguzzi]

So often, those who ask the least give the most.

[jdgretz]

Ah crap! 

I hate hearing things like that, especially as I'm an old Army helicopter driver myself.  Hope for survivors, prayers for the families.

jdg

[Waterbottle]

Very sorry to here this Jim, It must churn your innards a bit hearing this and not being able to leap into action. Didn't you do this kind of rescue stuff for a living ?
Ron

[Sasquatch Jim]

Yes, I've been involved in those rescues many times.
 This is the worst military accident in Hawaii since WW2.

[Orange Guzzi]

Jim.

Any updates on the search for survivors?  This story barely showing up in the news....

Whats up?  This story seems to have disappeared from the news.  First thing I looked for today on the regular t.v. news and internet home page.  Yesterday it was reported on every news break hear in the Kentucky market. 

What a bad day at work for these young men.  Sad. 

[dlapierre]

Here's one media report: http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/16/us/hawaii-military-aircraft-collision/

If you go to the news app on a Google screen and type in " helicopter crash", you'll get a range of media reports.

[Sasquatch Jim]

 One reason it's disappearing from the news is no new information.  They are not finding any bodies or survivors.
  It does not look good for the 12 men of the crews.

[Kentktk]

I hate to be such a downer, but helicopters have the glide ratio of a rock.  There are also way too many moving parts for my tastes.  We lost a couple while I was on deployment in the Navy.  We never found anything.

If you hate being such a downer, than why be one?

[Bill N]

Very sad. Night missions over the water are so demanding. Training requires crews to operate in this hostile environment. Many don't know or remember that just a few years ago off San Diego at, a USCG C-130 collided with a Marine helicopter. The C-130 was on a SAR mission the helo on a training exercise. Best wishes to the families.
Bill
(Retired C-130 and helo pilot)

[Sasquatch Jim]

  Big birds are not immune to collisions, it nearly always means death.

[johnr]

This incident was on the news here too. No joke flying a chopper at night.

[ken farr]

Cpl. Drown, nephew of a friend.....


kjf

[Tom]

From the local tv news. 

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/30987812/on-3rd-day-of-searching-coast-guard-remains-hopeful-survivors-will-be-found

[Sasquatch Jim]

  Very sad but not unexpected.  Considering the very rough seas and the violent nature of the event, I would have been pleseantly surprised to have any survivors at all but considering that those crews were outfitted with survival gear I expected a few bodies.  I can only surmise that it happened so fast that they were killed or rendered incapable of exiting the wreckage
before it sank.

[Tom]

The wreckage is in 340' deep water.  The bodies are probably in there.