Investigations into two fatal crashes of aging Hawaii-based Marine Corps Sea Stallion helicopters prior to the model’s retirement point to catastrophic mechanical failure of the Vietnam-era aircraft.
On a Jan. 19, 2012, night mission in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province, the main rotor and a portion of the gearbox completely detached from the helicopter, causing the aircraft to plummet to the ground, killing the crew of six, according to family members and the Marine Corps investigation.
"There was another helicopter flying tandem with them, and they observed what happened," said John Bartle, whose son, Capt. Daniel Bartle, was one of the pilots. "And it just, it basically fell out of the sky. There was no warning or any chance for them to (do anything)."
Killed were Bartle, 27, of Ferndale, Wash.; Capt. Nathan McHone, 29, of Crystal Lake, Ill.; Master Sgt. Travis Riddick, 40, of Centerville, Iowa; Cpl. Jesse Stites, 23, of North Beach, Md.; Cpl. Kevin Reinhard, 25, of Colonia, N.J.; and Cpl. Joseph Logan, 22, of Willis, Texas.
All were with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363, the Lucky Red Lions, out of Kaneohe Bay.
The commanding general of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward) who approved the investigation, Maj. Gen. Glenn Walters, found that the deaths were not due to any crew misconduct.
"We mourn the tragic loss of these Marines," Walters said in the report.
Several family members recently shared some of the findings with the Star-Advertiser, which previously requested, but was not provided, a copy of the investigation by the Marine Corps.
The 2012 crash came at the end of the helicopter’s lengthy service life, as did another involving a CH-53D Sea Stallion that went down on the Kaneohe Bay sandbar on March 29, 2011, killing one Marine and injuring three others.
Sea Stallions first flew in 1964, became operational in 1966 and were used in the Vietnam War, according to the Navy.
Until the big single-main-rotor choppers flew their last combat mission in Afghanistan in August and were permanently retired from service, they were part of an aging U.S. military aircraft arsenal that still includes B-52 bombers first flown in 1954, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.
"These (CH-53Ds) are 40 years old," John Bartle said. "They’ve seen duty in Vietnam, for God sakes. They fly them and they maintain them, but I don’t know, you can only give it so much. They’ve got to have somewhat of a limited life span, I would think. That always bothered us."
But "that’s what they (the Marines) got," the Washington state resident added. "They’ve got to use them, and no, I don’t fault the Marines at all."
All of the Sea Stallions were consolidated at the Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps base in the mid-1990s. The helicopter had two engines. Newer but similar-looking CH-53E Super Stallions, with three engines, are still in use by the Marines.
As far back as 2003, when Kaneohe Bay had 40 of the Sea Stallions in three squadrons, maintenance crews were making several trips a year to a helicopter boneyard outside Tucson, Ariz., to retrieve parts such as engine cowlings that weren’t made anymore. In May 2011 there were 32 remaining at Kaneohe Bay.
John Riddick, whose son also was among those killed in the 2012 crash, said the CH-53D still was a capable aircraft. He was an F-4 Phantom mechanic and served in Vietnam in 1969.
"They (the Sea Stallions) are upgraded," Riddick said. "They are maintained. They are overhauled. That’s the way the F-4s were, and we lost some. It’s a machine."
His son was a crew chief and quality assurance chief with the helicopter squadron in Afghanistan.
"I will tell you one thing: I know my son, and if there was a problem with that aircraft, nobody would have been on it," said Riddick, who lives in Iowa.
The Naval<$o($)> Criminal Investigative Service said in an email after the crash that a Marine in the accompanying helicopter saw the CH-53D go down.
The two aircraft were conducting a nighttime resupply mission for the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, according to the message.
The two choppers left Forward Operating Base Edinburgh and were flying in a holding pattern at a checkpoint east of Musa Quela, awaiting clearance to proceed.
One or two observers saw what initially appeared to be flares, a defense against missiles, set off by the other CH-53D, the NCIS email says. But it then became apparent that sparks were coming from the top aft transmission of the chopper.
A crash and fire ensued. According to the email, there were no apparent signs of enemy attack or movement. Tracer rounds could be seen after the crash that likely was ammunition "cooking off" in the fire.
The Sea Stallion that went down in Kaneohe Bay was also from the Lucky Red Lions.
The aircraft had received repairs "for multiple hydraulic issues" but was flown without incident the day before, according to the Marine Corps investigation.
The Sea Stallion still lost hydraulic pressure, however, and the chopper crashed at 7:20 p.m. from low altitude as warning lights flashed and its pilots tried to guide it back to base.
The most recent crash of a Marine CH-53D before that was in 2004 in Okinawa. It was attributed to a maintenance oversight. There were injuries but no deaths.
Travis Riddick loved to fly and spoke proudly of the Sea Stallions in a 2011 news story produced by the Marine Corps.
"There is nothing that out-flies it," Riddick said. "For everything the Marine Corps has put into this helicopter, we have gotten 10 times out of it."
His father noted that the anniversary of his son’s death is Saturday.
"It will be the first," John Riddick said. "We’ve been through all the firsts — the birthdays, the Christmases, the holidays. It’s been very tough."
The last CH-53D squadron, Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 362, was deactivated Nov. 30, said 1st Lt. Diann Olson, a Kaneohe Bay spokeswoman.
The Sea Stallions were retired to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., from combat in Afghanistan, she said.
